The trial of the defendant Duško Knežević in the "envelope" affair continued with the hearing of witnesses today in the High Court in Podgorica.
Witness Dijana Zečević said that the conversion of 100.000 dollars for the account of Duško Knežević was not suspicious. She stated that converting money was a common activity in the bank's operations. She added that the amount of 100.000 dollars for conversion did not surprise them and was not suspicious, considering that Duško Knežević invested more than 20 million in the bank.
Answering the questions of the defendants' lawyers, Zečević said that the bank had a department whose competence was money laundering prevention. As she explained, there was one man there and he was an independent body. She added that during that period, Duško Knežević was a shareholder.
"The Central Bank of Montenegro was, as a regulatory body, obliged to check the shareholders. If everything was not in order, Duško Knežević would not have been able to become a shareholder," said Dijana Zečević.
Đurđić spoke about the operations of the company "Mega Gulf", and that he was only an authorized person in that company by Duško Knežević and that after a certain time he transferred to "Atlas banka".
He stated that, while he was engaged in the mentioned company, there was nothing controversial or suspicious in the business.
Answering a question from lawyer Andrijana Razić, the defense attorney for the defendant Knežević, witness Đurđić said that in one of the proceedings he entered into a plea agreement and that he had the status of a cooperating witness in one case. He added that he has no information regarding today's proceedings.
"No influence was exerted on me. In the case where I entered into a plea agreement, my lawyers were Dragoljub Đukanović and Lazar Aković. That agreement was absolutely my decision and it is my personal matter. The lawyers did not say anything negative to me in relation to Dusko Knežević," said Đurđić.
The defendant Duško Knežević said that "in this hall, that is, the large courtroom of the Podgorica High Court, the spirit of Milivoj Katnić is present everywhere".
Lawyer Lazar Aković addressed the court because even today the accused Duško Knežević called him names, linking him with untrue allegations.
"I have been suffering serious insults from the accused Knežević for a long time. He targeted me negatively in almost every trial. I remained silent because it is inappropriate for me to argue with a person who is on the dock. I am representing eight defendants in this so-called 'Atlas Affair'. All of them denied guilt and they are Duško Knežević's close associates and friends. I claim this responsibly, I am ready to go to the lie detector, that I have never exerted inappropriate influence on my clients and told them something that was negative in relation to Duško Knežević and for the sake of their benefits. At one of the trials, Duško Knežević said that I was representing the associate witness Vlatko Rašović, and I don't know that man and we never had contact. Not my client. If a person were to listen to Duško Knežević, he would think that dozens of my clients had entered into an agreement and pleaded guilty, and in all these years there were two or three of them," said lawyer Aković.
Duško Knežević addressed the court stating that he will not deal with Aković now, someone else will deal with Aković.
The indictment states, among other things, that Dusko Knežević, after his associates converted 110.000 dollars into euros, handed Stijepović "only" 47.500 euros.
In addition to Duško Knežević and Slavoljub Stijepović, Knežević's associates and friends Branislav Todorović, Živko Šljivančanin, Tamara Krdžić, Goran Grujović and Tomica Knežević were also accused.
The indictment states that in the second half of 2010, Duško Knežević created a criminal group whose members were in charge of withdrawing the money obtained from the illegal activities of several companies and then handing it over to him in order to put it into legal flows.
In the first count of the indictment, Duško Knežević committed the criminal offense of creating a criminal organization from Article 401 a paragraph 1 in relation to paragraph 6 of the Criminal Code of Montenegro, and the defendants Tomica Knežević, Todorović Branislav, Šljivančanih Živko, Grujović Goran and Krdžić Tamara committed the criminal offense of creating a criminal organization from Article 401a paragraph 2 in connection with paragraphs 1 and 6 of the Criminal Code of Montenegro.
In the second count of the indictment, these defendants, as well as Slavoljub Stijepović, as co-perpetrators, committed the criminal offense of money laundering from Article 268 paragraph 3 in connection with paragraph 1 of the Criminal Code of Montenegro.
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