Special state prosecutor Lidija Mitrović, at today's repeated trial in the High Court in Podgorica, where she is being tried for abuse of official position, requested the exemption of acting special prosecutor Miloš Šoškić.
"I believe that there are circumstances that indicate the bias of prosecutor Šoškić and that the indictment is the product of evil intent, to be blunt. It was logical that after the main trial in the previous proceedings, and then the decision of the Court of Appeal, the prosecutor dropped the indictment," said the accused Mitrović.
She added that within three days, she will give a detailed explanation of the request for exemption in a written submission.
Judge Nenad Vujanović postponed the hearing of the main trial and rescheduled it for November 6.
The chief special prosecutor will decide on the request for disqualification of the prosecutor.
At the hearing today, Judge Nenad Vujanović, who handed down the first-instance guilty verdict, asked Mitrović if she was also seeking his exemption, because the prosecutor referred to the decision of the Court of Appeal.
He noted that he delivered the guilty verdict in this case. Prosecutor Mitrović said that she is not seeking his exemption for now.
Defendant Mitrović's lawyer, lawyer Zoran Piperović, explained to the court that in seeking the exemption of special prosecutor Šoškić, defendant Mitrović referred to parts of the decision of the Appellate Court in which certain allegations of prosecutor Šoškić were questioned.
Prosecutor Šoškić stated that he will respond to this request within the legal deadline.
He added that the defense had time to ask for an exemption until now, considering that the decision of the Court of Appeal was delivered in June canceling the first-instance verdict.
"And the request for exemption could be submitted to the prosecution, it did not have to be at the main trial. I believe that the only intention is to postpone the search", said prosecutor Šoškić.
Lawyer Piperović said that as a defense attorney, he only learned this morning that Mitrović will request an exemption.
In the previous court proceedings, the defendant Mitrović was sentenced to seven months in prison in the High Court in Podgorica. After the defense appealed, the Court of Appeal overturned the conviction and sent the case back for a new trial.
The Special Prosecutor's Office filed an indictment against Mitrović because, as a public official, she unlawfully used her position to benefit Nikola Perović, Suzana Mihailović, Predrag Raičković, Zahudin Bulić and Marina Vujošević by, in the period from November 4, 2020, to December 31, 2021 dismissed the criminal charges against them and postponed the criminal prosecution for the criminal offense of tax and contribution evasion, for which a sentence of one to six years in prison was threatened, although she knew that this institute could not be used for that offense.
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