The Council of the Appellate Court of Montenegro rejected the defense attorneys' appeal and confirmed the decision of the High Court in Podgorica to extend the detention of former chief special prosecutor Milivoj Katnić and former assistant director of the Police Administration Zoran Lazović.
The decision, which was made at yesterday's session of the Appellate Court, was confirmed to "Vijesta" by Marija Raković, an independent adviser in the High Court. She clarified that the appeal was filed by Katnić's defense attorney, but not Lazović's.
The appeal of lawyer Katnić against the decision of the High Court in Podgorica on the extension of detention from October 12 of this year was rejected as unfounded.
The Higher Court in Podgorica, after the indictment of the Special State Prosecutor's Office against Katnić and Lazović, extended the detention of the former GST due to the risk of escape and repetition of the criminal offense, and the former police official on the basis of detention from Art. 175 st. 1 point. 4. of the Criminal Code because they appreciated "that there are difficult circumstances of the act, which give it a particularly difficult character, and are reflected in the manner of execution..."
On October 11 of this year, the Special State Prosecutor's Office (SDT) submitted an indictment to the High Court due to the well-founded suspicion that Lazović organized a criminal organization in 2020, whose members were Katnić, Petar Lazović and the suspended prosecutor Saša Čađenović.
That organization, according to the claims of SDT, cooperated with Radoj Zvicer's criminal group.
"Each member of the criminal organization had a predetermined task and role, its activities were planned for a long time and were based on the application of certain rules of internal control and discipline of members, and there was influence of a part of the criminal organization on the executive power - the Police Directorate and other important social factors - Special State Prosecutor's Office", states the SDT in a statement.
SDT believes that in December 2020, Lazović, as the assistant director of the UP, illegally used his official position to benefit the citizens of Belgrade, Veljko Belivuk and Marko Miljković, and after he illegally lifted the ban on entering Montenegro.
"At the request of the Swiss, which was passed on to him by his son, he ensured that the ban on their entry into Montenegro was lifted and thus obtained a benefit for them in the form of the right to enter and stay in Montenegro, which was forbidden to them, because they represented a threat to national and internal security", states SDT.
The former assistant director of UP, as explained by the SDT, was charged on suspicion of misleading the public with the former head of the SDT during public and media appearances that Belivuk and Miljković entered Montenegro at the request of the Serbian police and that according to them UP and he as an elder took police measures and actions...
In addition, SDT believes that Lazović and Katnić benefited a prominent member of the Kavački clan - Duško Roganović.
"The defendant Lazović did not order the police to initiate a search of Duško Roganović and file a report against him as a supplement to the criminal complaint, even though evidence and notifications were previously collected from which the basis for suspicion arose that Roganović committed the criminal offense of creating a criminal organization and others for which prosecuting ex officio, and that, as the organizer of a criminal organization, he then ordered its member - the defendant Milivoj Katnić, not to initiate proceedings against Roganović ex officio, which Katnić accepted, even though he himself knew that there were evidence and notifications for grounds for suspicion that Roganović committed criminal acts for which he is being prosecuted ex officio", states the SDT.
According to the indictment, Katnić ordered the accused prosecutor Saša Čađenović not to initiate proceedings against Roganović.
In the indictment, the SDT states that they have collected evidence for the well-founded suspicion that in January 2022, the former GST, together with the special prosecutor Saša Čađenović, who was handling the case, obtained benefits for the accused Petar Lazović, but also for the fugitive policeman Ljubo Milović, Zvicer, Roganović and seven more members of their criminal organization.
"Even though he knew that there were grounds for suspecting that they had committed criminal acts for which they are being prosecuted ex officio, he agreed with the decision made by the accused Saša Čađenović, not to initiate criminal prosecution against them. Then Katnić, further realizing his role and task in the criminal organization, in public and media appearances misled the public that the accused Petar Lazović, the son of the accused Zoran, was not a member of the Zvicera criminal organization, but an undercover police officer on an undercover mission, while, after established that Saša Čađenović made an obviously illegal decision, the Special State Prosecutor's Office, and after the investigation, filed an indictment against 11 accused persons, for a large number of serious criminal offenses, and for which the criminal proceedings before the court are ongoing", states the SDT.
In the indictment, the prosecution has reasonable suspicions that from March 2021 to March 2024, Lazović "falsely presented facts about the origin of money that he knew was obtained through criminal activity."
"As a public and former public official, he submitted reports to the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption, in which he falsely stated that he earned income from agriculture in the amount of 2.500 euros per month, although he did not sell agricultural products and food, nor was he in the register of the ministry responsible for agricultural affairs registered as a producer of agricultural products intended for the market. In this way, he falsely represented the origin of the money obtained through criminal activity - by committing the criminal offense of creating a criminal organization for which he was charged, and by criminal activity - through the unauthorized sale of narcotic drugs and the smuggling and sale of cigarettes by his son - the accused Petar Lazović, against whom the Special the state prosecutor's office filed several indictments for several criminal acts of unauthorized production, possession and distribution of narcotic drugs and smuggling," the indictment states.
And finally, the SDT points out, there is a well-founded suspicion that in April of this year, the defendants Lazović and Katnić, in the houses they use, kept firearms and ammunition without authorization, for which they were not issued the appropriate weapons certificate...
Katnić and Lazović were arrested on April 14, by order of the Special State Prosecutor's Office, on the grounds of suspicion that they committed the criminal acts of creating a criminal organization and abuse of official position.
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