For now, there is no concrete answer as to what will happen to the convictions in the "coup d'état" case, which were passed on the basis of a plea agreement.
After yesterday's acquittal for all those accused in that case for attempted terrorism on the day of the parliamentary elections in 2016, the question arises as to what is happening with the agreements between the suspects and the prosecution, which the Podgorica High Court accepted on March 8, 2017.
The then president of the court Boris Savić he respected the agreements that the Special State Prosecutor's Office concluded with Aleksandar Čurović, Nikola Đurić, Siniš Ćetković, Dejan Stanojević i Ivica Matić - to be sentenced to five months in prison for the criminal offense of creating a criminal organization.
Attorney Drazen Medojević he told "Vijesti" yesterday that "there were very disputed confessions of guilt".
"The defendants in those court proceedings admitted their guilt just to go home and get out of custody. That's the bottom line. Those judgments had no legal impact on this court process 'coup d'état' and on the passing of this judgment. They were accused in those proceedings seven years ago and only admitted their guilt. It is known that he is the chief special prosecutor at the time Milivoje Katnic used brute force to get them to confess their guilt. He forced all these people. Time has shown everything. They admitted what they didn't do to go home as soon as possible. Those who remained principled remained in custody and on the dock. It is characteristic that the defendant Srboljub Đorđević told the prosecutor, when they pressed him to admit his guilt: 'It is a sin to lie', lawyer Medojević stated.
He said that he believes that it is necessary to conduct a review of all cases in which prosecutor Katnić acted.
"It is necessary to review all the cases of Milivoj Katnić, whether his actions were legal and what he used when concluding the plea agreement. Force, fear and blackmail, that was his method of work", said Medojević.
Attorney Miroje Jovanovic in his statement to "Vijesta" he states that the defendants then concluded the agreements while they were in an absolute delusion.
"The plea agreements that were concluded with a number of persons back in January and February 2017 were concluded in absolute error. False cooperating witness Sasa Sindjelic was heard only after that, at the end of March 2017. I remind you that on November 22, 2016, Sinđelić was given the status of an associate witness by the then president of the High Court, Boris Savić - under the name Aleksandar. Those people, who concluded the agreements, neither knew nor could have known that SDT was hiding Sinđelic's true identity and criminal past, as well as the red Interpol warrant. In particular, they could not know what was in Sinđelić's phones, because the extraction of them was submitted to the defense only in April 2018, and then at the suggestion of the defense, an additional extraction was done, because the court "forgot" to examine even two of Sinđelić's phones. Therefore, all except Mirko Paja Velimirović concluded the agreements in an absolute and irremovable delusion, which some have publicly spoken about, and Velimirović's agreement is a masterpiece of legal ignorance and political maneuvering", lawyer Jovanović concluded.
Accepting the plea agreements at the time, the judge stated in the explanation of the decision that the confession of the defendants was true in terms of guilt.
The five defendants, in almost identical statements, admitted that they had traveled to Podgorica to support the Democratic Front protests on the day of the parliamentary elections on October 16, 2016, and that they had planned to physically fight with the police, together with the politicians and the people, in the ensuing commotion. break through the cordon and forcibly occupy the Parliament of Montenegro...
Clumsy MIRKO
In the repeated court proceedings, the leaders of the former Democratic Front Andrija Mandic i Milan Knezevic, but also the other defendants, were acquitted of the accusation that on the day of the parliamentary elections eight years ago, they intended to occupy the state parliament armed and declare victory...
The current president of the Parliament of Montenegro and the head of the parliamentary club of the Democratic People's Party were then sentenced to five years in prison, but the Court of Appeal overturned that decision.
President of the special council, judge Zoran Radovic he said that the allegations in the indictment that they are Russians have not been confirmed Eduard Shishmakov i Vladimir Popov, created a criminal organization, and that, of all the weapons, only two "lenovo" mobile phones were brought into Montenegro...
It is the epilogue, as it was announced, of the "trial of the century", whose trial was followed by live television broadcast from the beginning of September 2017 until May 9, 2019, when the first, now revoked, verdict was pronounced.
The Court of Appeal annulled the conviction at the time and "planned" that an acquittal should be passed in the repeated court process.
The judge emphasized that in the explanation of the verdict yesterday Zoran Radovic, saying that his council's job was made easier, after the decision of the Appellate Court was revoked.
"In order for someone to declare himself guilty of a criminal offense, there must be certainty regarding the facts that make up the characteristics of the criminal offense, and which facts are an element of the existence of the criminal offense specified in the provision of the indictment. There is no such certainty in the specific case, and the court ruled that the accused are acquitted of the charges because it has not been proven that they committed the criminal acts charged by the special prosecution. The path to this court was made easier until the determination of a fair and complete factual situation by the decision of the Court of Appeal, which annulled the first verdict and which contains precise instructions on how to proceed in the retrial," said Radović.
He then referred to an almost crucial issue - the weapon, which never entered Montenegro, but which was nevertheless located in the rented house of a police officer at the Old Airport, which was recorded by Mirko Velimirović after entering Montenegro on October 12, 2016 and after leaving to the office of special prosecutor Milivoj Katnić.
"That footage was reviewed in the courtroom, and the court, the prosecutors, the defendants, their defense and the public could see the grotesque scenes when Mirko Velimirović enters that room and tries in a clumsy way to record that weapon, taken on the reverse side from the police. From the side, the voices of the members of the Special Police Department could be heard, prompting him, so confused, what he should do. According to the order of this court, it has not been proven that Mirko Velimirović belongs to a certain person Fadilj bought a weapon on Mokra Gora and that, according to Katnić's previous instructions, he disassembled it and threw it into Lake Gazivode. He neither knew how to describe where that lake was located, nor did he know how he did that. Mokra Gora is a huge mountain with a huge area, so it is incredible for the court that Velimirović found Fadilj there without any prior agreement with someone and without telephone communication. It's like looking for a needle in a haystack," said the judge.
He said that the departure of Sinđelić's associate witness to Moscow on September 27, 2016, "also deserved to be explained."
"Sinđelić gives a detailed description with a series of minute details that are characteristic of a learned testimony, while when asked by the defense, he did not know how to describe the SDT building. From the letter of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation dated September 5, 2018, whose authenticity there is no doubt, it is established that on September 27, 2016, Sinđelić flew to Sheremetyevo Airport on an international flight from Belgrade, on which occasion he did not cross the state customs border of the Russian Federation - that is, he did not pass passport or customs control. On the same day, he flew to Belgrade from transit. When asked by the defense during a search, Sinđelić allowed the possibility that he was sitting in a space corresponding to the transit, which is completely contrary to his statement that he was taken through a corridor bypassing passport control.
On March 8, 2017, the Podgorica High Court accepted five plea agreements for preparing a violent attack on the Parliament of Montenegro on October 16, 2016. Five people were then sentenced to five months in prison each, after admitting that they planned to with politicians and the people, fight with the police and occupy the Assembly
The judge said that the fact that Sinđelić entered Russia and was in Moscow, where he met with Edvard Šišmakov, who, as the organizer of a criminal organization, engaged him to do work in Montenegro and influence the parliamentary elections, but added that neither the equipment that was supposed to be used for entering the Assembly, it was not transferred to Montenegro.
"Therefore, neither the equipment nor the weapons were brought into Montenegro... and the weapons that were recorded in the rented house at the Old Airport served for the investigating judge to issue an order for the implementation of secret surveillance measures at the request of the competent Special Prosecutor's Office. From the disputed evidence, it was further established that members of the Special Unit, which according to the indictment was supposed to take up arms in Montenegro, shoot at members of the Montenegrin police and enter and occupy the building of the Parliament of Montenegro and other institutions, arrest the Prime Minister of Montenegro Milo Đukanović, declare the victory of the opposition, in which the accused Mandić and Knežević would have played an active role, the day before and on the day of the parliamentary elections, they were in the region of Zlatibor and Čajetina, and it has not been proven that the act of committing terrorism on the territory of Montenegro had started. In order for it to be an attempted criminal offense, and there is a completed and an incomplete attempt, the act of execution should begin, and the consequence should be absent after undertaking the execution actions or for some reason the execution action should not be completed. All of these actions listed in the indictment are preparatory actions for terrorism, so it has not been proven that the action of execution has begun, because of all those powerful weapons and equipment, the only thing that was brought into Montenegro were two 'Lenovo' phones".
No evidence for Popov, Dikić, Hristić...
When we talk about the criminal offense of creating a criminal organization in relation to Vladimir Popov, who is accused of having organized a criminal organization together with Shismakov, and from all the evidence it is determined that this man appears several times, he stands on the sidelines as a kind of security, so it is absolutely not proven that he is the organizer of a criminal organization, Judge Radović explained yesterday.
I sat with Aleksandar Aleksić, who told me that Mirko Velimirović contacted him and suggested that we go to Montenegro and support the Democratic Front. Velimirović told him that the government is criminal and that the Serbs in Montenegro should be supported, and that there should be a change of government and that we will clash with the police," said Aleksandar Lj. Čurović from the trial, when he admitted his guilt
He also said that Bratislav Dikić was accused of acting on the orders of the organizers of the criminal organization, but that he never had any contact with them...
"From the testimony of Sinđelić and Velimirović, it is established that Dikić did not know about any weapons or had any communication with any member of this criminal organization, as presented in the indictment, nor with those people who came to Montenegro from Serbia. His emotional partner Kristina Hristić came to Montenegro with him, whom the Special Prosecutor's Office accused of arranging meetings between other members of a criminal organization and communicating with Sinđelić and Mirko Velimirović from her mobile phone for the needs of the accused Dikić. In order for someone to undertake these actions, he must have the awareness and will to do so. It is obvious from her defense and that of Dikić that she absolutely did not know and simply gave him the phone by pressing the button, and the message went to Mirko Velimirović during their trip from Bar to Podgorica. This exhausts her entire role," said the judge.
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