The Special State Prosecutor's Office proposed to the extrajudicial panel of the High Court in Podgorica to confirm the indictment against Milo Božović and the other defendants.
State Prosecutor Jovan Vukotić, sent to work in the special prosecutor's office, said that all the evidence was collected in a legal manner.
"I believe that all the evidence was obtained in accordance with the law and the European Convention for International Cooperation with the supplementary protocol, which is in accordance with Article 9 of the Constitution of Montenegro, which has primacy over domestic legislation. I suggest that the indictment be confirmed," Vukotić said. .
At the previous adjourned hearing in early December, the judge said that the SKY material had not yet been received from the ICT expert service of the Judicial Council of Montenegro and was still not processed by a program that would allow the defense to have equal access to that material.
In mid-September of last year, the Special State Prosecutor's Office (SDT) filed an indictment against the so-called police drug cartel, which included 21 people, including Božović - accused of creating a criminal organization and drug smuggling, as well as police official Dejan Knežević, who will be possibly tried for disclosure of secret information and abuse of official position.
The defenders of the defendants pointed out that the dominant proposal is to suspend the criminal proceedings, because there is no room for accusation, because there is no evidence that they have committed criminal acts. There were also some proposals to return the indictment to the SDT to supplement the investigation.
Defendant Milo Božović's lawyer, lawyer Miroje Jovanović, said that he had submitted his objections to the indictment to the court in written form, and that he would also submit 20 more documents.
"I propose to the court to decide that there is no room for accusations and that the criminal proceedings be suspended because there is no evidence that Milo Božović is reasonably suspicious," said Jovanović.
He added that for a better resolution, it is necessary to return the indictment in order to eliminate the noted deficiencies or to supplement the indictment. He then moved on to what he said were specific shortcomings.
"The basic condition for the indictment to be confirmed is that there were no omissions in the investigation. The special prosecutor did not check the allegations of the defense at all. The SDT refused to obtain in the investigation the transcripts from the recent sessions of the Security Committee, i.e. from the 'deaf room' where "Božović participated and had a presentation. It is very important to point out. Why was the presentation from the 'deaf room', from the sessions of the Security Committee, not obtained," asked Jovanović.
He added that the SDT tried to translate its claims into evidence.
"This refers to the alleged identification of numbers. If the SDT note is evidence, we will end up in an absurd situation where the indictment is also evidence. There is not enough evidence in the indictment for well-founded suspicion. Milo Božović's defense could be verified by looking at other cases about the most ordinary by reading from the daily press," said Jovanović.
He then referred to the alleged identification of the defendants.
"The prosecutor took one communication allegedly from one person with himself; 'Hey, how are you uncle'. The material concerning the relationship between Milo Božović and the other accused, the prosecutor said before this panel that he had read all the materials. The prosecutor brought himself to contradiction. The prosecutor could have come to the conclusion that they do not tolerate each other. According to the evidence from the communications, not only is there no group, but they are each other's enemies. I am talking about Milo Božović's group. How did the prosecutor not read this. The investigation was not conducted legally. The defense requests to obtain what Milo Božović said in the deaf room about the other accused. Božović said everything at the public sessions of the Security Committee. The defense cannot obtain what he said in the 'deaf room', but the prosecutor can. Božović was illegally monitored all the time from ANB," said Jovanović.
Lawyer Dragoljub Đukanović, Ljub Milović's defense attorney, said that this criminal proceeding should be stopped.
"I believe that this procedure should be stopped because there is no evidence that all the accused are reasonably suspicious," he said.
The first disputed evidence for the defense attorney are the official notes of the MUP of Montenegro.
"The first disputed evidence is the official notes made by the MUP of Montenegro, which has given itself the right to identify the alleged users of the alleged communications. Give me one piece of information that one phone or one box in which the phone was packed was taken from anyone. That no. I think you have to dismiss all this evidence as legally invalid. That's the point. There is no way to call an excel spreadsheet an original and be judged on that basis. We could all be writing day and night and making excel spreadsheets. I'm looking for an original excel spreadsheet, I am looking for the server and the person who did it. We only have a copy of something called an excel spreadsheet and it cannot be examined. What is not in the original and cannot be examined cannot be evidence. This is quite enough to stop the criminal proceedings," Đukanović emphasized.
The SDT filed an indictment against 21 defendants - Milo Božović, Radoj Zvicer, Ljub Milović, Dejan Knežević, Mileta Ojadnić, Ivan Stamatović, Nebojša Bugarin, Petr Lazović, Milan Popović, Miloš Mišurović, Marko Novaković, Ivan Nikolić, Goran Stojanović, Božidar Jabučanin, Aleksandar Keković, Vladimir Bajčeta, Tihomir Adžić, Filip Zindović (Kljajević), Darko Knežević, Dražen Milović, Ivan Mijatović.
The prosecution charges the individuals in that group, among other things, with smuggling 4,3 tons of cocaine, with laundering around 7.000.000 euros, but also with causing general danger and illegal possession of weapons...
In part of the prosecutor's files, it is stated that Ivan Mijatović in one trip ensured that 100 kilograms of cocaine owned by Milo Božović were safely transported from the port of Lisbon to the town of Costa da Caparica in Portugal.
According to the prosecution documents, another person was involved in that case, and they are trying to determine her identity through the messages of the Sky application that all the suspects used.
In the same documents, it is explained that on May 9, 2020, around thirty minutes after midnight, from the ship "MSC Fantasia", which was anchored in the port of Lisbon, this third person lowered six orange bags, which contained 100 packs of cocaine.
"In the way that the person who used the pin TL9TOH on the encrypted application 'SKY ECC', acting on the order of the defendant Milo Božović, on 09.05.2020. year, around 00.30 hours, from the ship 'MSC Fantasia', which was anchored in the port of Lisbon, dropped six orange bags, which contained a total of 100 packages of the narcotic drug cocaine", according to the prosecutor's files. SDT claims that the cocaine belonged to Božović and that an unknown person took it by boat:
"On the order of the defendant Ivan Mijatović, who acted on the orders of the defendant Milo Božović. After that, the defendant Ivan Mijatović, also acting on the orders of the defendant Milo Božović, transported the said narcotic drug cocaine to a safe location in Lisbon on the same day, and then on 11 May 05 he transported the narcotic drug in question from that location to another safe location in to the town of Costa da Caparica, and all with the aim of further unauthorized sales for the account of the defendant Milo Božović," the files say.
Jovanović: How did the prosecutor not see that they were each other's enemies?
In the submission submitted to the court by Milo Božović's defense attorney, lawyer Jovanović, he writes, among other things, that the SDT ignored a whole set of evidence that relates precisely to the subject of the accusation, that is, to their claims about the activities of that politician in the Security Committee.
"This directly points to the fact that the prosecution did not gather evidence in favor of the defense - which was required, especially considering the fact that the evidence in question relates directly to the incrimination," says the submission of lawyer Miroj Jovanović.
It is also added that Božović had the help and assistance of a sort of advisor when compiling the questions for the sessions of that parliamentary body, that is, one of the current highest police officials of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
Jovanović said in the courtroom that SDT tried to translate its claims into evidence:
"If the SDT's note is evidence, we will end up in an absurd situation where the indictment is also evidence. There is not enough evidence in the indictment for well-founded suspicion. The defense of Milo Božović could be verified by looking at other cases and by simply reading from the daily press," he said. Jovanovic.
He then referred to the alleged identification of the defendants.
"The prosecutor took one communication allegedly from one person with himself; 'Hey, how are you, uncle'... The prosecutor said before this panel that he had read all the materials. The prosecutor contradicted himself. The prosecutor could have come to the conclusion that they do not tolerate each other. According to the evidence from the communications, not only is there no group, but they are each other's enemies. I am talking about Milo Božović's group. How did the prosecutor not read this?" Jovanović said.
He assessed that the investigation was not conducted legally and asked to obtain what Božović said in the deaf room about the other accused.
"Božović said everything at the public sessions of the Security Committee. The defense cannot obtain what he said in the 'deaf room', but the prosecutor can. Božović was illegally monitored by the ANB," said Jovanović.
Radović: The Prosecution is overloading the court with cases
Lawyer Marko Radović, defending the defendants Radoj Zvicer, Darko Knežević, Božidar Jabučanin and Ivan Mijatović, said that he expected the special prosecutor to say something more "because the indictment does not contain specifics".
"Sky communication cannot be used as evidence. I still stand firm and I am more and more right. The communications must be specified. The prosecutor generally states in the indictment that the defendants communicated and that the drug was theirs. It must be stated that between whom and when That is not true. The burden of proof is on the prosecutor, because that is the law. These communications arrived at the SDT three years ago. The prosecution did not provide an explanation for the criminal acts committed abroad. Zvicer is alleged in the indictment to be a co-perpetrator. in any criminal offense related to drugs, and is not a member of a criminal organization. Now I have a new indictment that the Swiss founded a criminal organization for the distribution of drugs from Ecuador with the actions related to this indictment. Whoever finds his way here, I will make all my the defendants to confess to all criminal acts. The prosecutor arbitrarily claims that the defendants were involved in the transfer of drugs from Ecuador. Who will judge this," asked Radović and added:
"The prosecution is loading the court with cases. And it is loading the ship that has capsized because it is about to collapse due to the number of cases and the lack of capacity," said Radović at the hearing today.
He suggested that the indictment be returned to supplement the investigation.
Franović Kovačević: Council to reject the charge
Lawyer Bojana Franović Kovačević, the defense attorney for the defendants Milo Božović, Ljub Milović, Ivan Stamatović and Nebojša Bugarin, said that Sky communication, as the only evidence in this case, was not obtained according to domestic legislation.
"The fact is that the material that comes from Sky Communications, I can't be proof," she said.
She then referred to Europol and Eurojust, and on what basis and for what purpose the data was submitted.
"There is something called the contract of Montenegro with Europol and Eurojust. The SDT opened the investigation procedure based on Europol data, and then strengthened them based on Eurojust data, so that they have the strength of evidence. The area of cooperation is defined exclusively as information. In accordance with the convention from Budapest, a gradation was made between information, data and evidence, and not that information should be used as evidence because it is not," Franović pointed out.
She added that Božović is in custody, and asked the court to take into account all the arguments of the defense.
"The only thing the council can do is to reject the accusation. And for the court to set a standard for what the accusation should look like," stated Franović Kovačević.
Božović: The indictment is meaningless and made for a political motive
In his address to the court, the accused Božović said that this indictment is meaningless and that it was made for a political motive.
He pointed out that SDT and prosecutor Jovan Vukotić are unfoundedly associating him with the kavak clan, which, as he stated, killed three of his close friends.
He stated that when he was in the Parliamentary Committee for Security, his associate, the consultant at that time was the head of SPO Predrag Šuković.
"He is my friend. He was my consultant, I had never dealt with security before. I have a blue notebook, given to you by my lawyer, in it is mine and Šuković's handwriting. He directed me to who is who in the police and who to whom he belongs. The media is here and for the sake of the public, I don't want it to be taken out of context to say bad things about him," said Božović.
Bonus video:
