Neither the Montenegrin nor the Serbian police from November 8 can guarantee that it is Alija Balijagić (65) on their territory, but even if it wasn't.
This was said by the interlocutor of "Vijesti" from the top of the security sector, stressing that the suspect for the double murder from October 28 to November 8 was not in the territory of Montenegro.
"We can say that with certainty, but not where he is after that date. The terrain is such that it can cross from Montenegro to Serbia several times a day or vice versa, and no one can guarantee that, for example, it is not on the territory of Montenegro, but also that it is. Considering the low temperatures, if there is no hiding place, no one can guarantee that he is alive", said the same interlocutor.
However, no one can guarantee that Balijagić is not hiding in the border villages with Serbia - on one or the other side of the border.
The Montenegrin police have been looking for Balijagić since the evening of October 25 on suspicion that he killed his brother and sister in the village of Sokolac, in their home Jovana (60) and Milenka Madžgalj (69)
A day later, the army joined them in the search, and help came from the Croatian police, who sent police officers with two specially trained search dogs to Montenegro.
According to "Vijesti", the dogs followed Balijagić's trail all the way to a stream in the Vraneška Valley. There, however, he lost track. The authorities believe that the bandit, who has been convicted several times, was partly escaping through the stream.
Seven days after the crime in the Vraneška Valley, the Serbian police became involved in the search for Balijagić after the suspect was allegedly spotted in the vicinity of Prijepolje.
However, the armed Balijagić, whose natural habitat of the forest and prison has been for decades, has not been found even after more than three weeks of the double murder, despite all the efforts of the Montenegrin, Serbian and Croatian police and army.
Theft then murder
In August, the 27-year-old man from Bjelopolja was released from prison, where he had been since November 2015, XNUMX, for raping a XNUMX-year-old woman and stealing.
At the end of September, as is suspected, he broke into a house in the Bjelopolje village of Lješnica VB and stole two rifles and ammunition.
Fifteen days before the double murder of innocent people, he was on the run from the police, who were looking for him for that theft, visiting mostly old people's households in remote villages above Bijelo Polje and Mojkovac.
On Friday, October 25, he came to Sokolac, to the house of Madžgalja, and before that, he stopped by the village elementary school, where the porter gave him a glass of water.
After the police patrol visited that village and the hamlet of Zaboj where Madžgalja's house is located, Balijagić allegedly returned to them and killed them both. That night, as is suspected, he shot with a hunting rifle, most likely a five-shot, at the people who had fed him and treated him to brandy a few hours before.
After he allegedly shot Jovan Madžgalje in the back, his sister managed to call the police and report the crime.
"That's when the relationship ended. He killed her too," the brother of the murdered told "Vijesti" earlier. Velibor Madžgalj.
On the night between October 25 and 26, two cartridges from a hunting rifle were found fifteen meters from the house where the Majgaljis were killed, and the tracking dogs pointed to the direction in which the killer fled from the scene of the crime.
The family of the victims of Madžgalje are outraged by the decision of the police not to stay in Sokolac that day after they were informed that an armed man was visiting the locals.
"Over the course of the day, it was reported to them that he was walking around the villages, carrying a rifle and a rifle. They came to my brother and sister, showed them the photographer Alija Balijagić and asked if it was him, they stayed at our house for ten minutes and left. If they had stayed in the village, this would not have happened. They had to stay that night to keep everyone on duty here, because they exactly let him kill them. He was released to kill them," said Velibor Madžgalj.
Protest in Sljepač most today
The crime in the village of Zaboj has opened up a number of issues that make the residents of Vraneška dolina demand the responsibility of the leaders of the security sector.
They announced that they will gather today at noon in Sljepač most, where they will block the main road and demand resignations from the top police and answers to the questions they asked three days after the crime.
On that day, they demanded collective responsibility and the immediate dismissal of the director of the Police Directorate Zoran Brđanin, Director of the Directorate and Head of the Regional Center North Haris Đurđević, with all their assistants, due to work failures which, as they claim, caused the double murder.
In an address to state officials on October 28, they wrote that innocent citizens were brutally murdered in Sokolac and that they will not allow the omissions that led to the suffering of their fellow citizens to be covered up and the responsibility transferred to the immediate perpetrator of that crime.
"With Article 28 of the Constitution of Montenegro, our state is committed to guarantee the dignity and safety of man, as well as the inviolability of his physical and psychological integrity. The state is represented by the state bodies in which the employment relationship was established by the persons for the performance of the tasks that are carried out in accordance with the Constitution, law and other regulations of that body," they said in the letter at the time.
Residents of the Vraneška Valley also pointed out that they are sure "that the tragedy occurred exclusively due to the ignorance of the officers of the Police Directorate, who are not capable of doing the work that was given to them, and which ignorance caused their inability to react in a timely manner and prevent murders.. .”
Unadaptable to "normal and legal flows"
Balijagić is prone to committing criminal acts and cannot adapt to normal and legal processes, it is written in the verdict that sentenced him to seven years in prison for the rape of a seventy-six-year-old woman on October 30, 2015.
"The actions of the accused contain all the characteristics of the criminal offense charged against him, for which he is guilty and criminally liable. The accused committed the crime with direct intent, he was aware that he was committing a criminal offense with the actions he took and he wanted to commit it. The accused was also aware of the victim's age, that she was an old person, but regardless of that, he forced her to rape, which he performed three times against her will, and thus showed exceptional impudence and persistence in committing the crime," he wrote 13 In May 2016, a judge of the High Court in Bijelo Polje.
He also explained that, when deciding on the type and amount of punishment for the accused, the court appreciated all the circumstances, but did not find any mitigating factors on the part of the accused.
"And as an aggravating factor, he appreciated his previous multiple convictions for various and the most serious criminal offenses, which indicates his tendency to commit criminal offenses and a personality that cannot adapt to normal and legal processes, and that he committed the crime against a 76-year-old person , which indicates his stubbornness, persistence and impudence, and a person who is socially dangerous and hard to fix. This is in view of the length of the sentences served and the absence of the expected educational impact on the accused, because he continued to commit criminal acts, so considering all these circumstances, he sentenced him to a prison sentence of 7 years, appreciating that it is proportionate to the gravity of the committed criminal act and the social danger of the perpetrator, and with the same the purpose of punishment will be achieved within the general purpose of imposing criminal sanctions".
Balijagić spent more than three decades behind bars, and "Vijesti" recently announced that he managed to escape from Spuša prison...
Bonus video:
