Today, the trial of Veselin Veljović, former director of the Police Administration, accused of creating a criminal organization and abuse of official position continued in the High Court in Podgorica.
The defense, before the special council of judge Vesna Kovačević, was presented by the defendants Dušica Bulatović and Predrag Veljić, while the court read the defense of the defendant Stefan Bubanja, which he gave in the prosecutor's investigation.
In her defense, Bulatović said, among other things, that she is not a member of any criminal organization and that she never acted on any instructions from the accused Arsenij Kalezić, nor does she know what that man looks like.
She stated that she does not know any of the accused except Željko Bulatović, who is her husband, and she met Nikola Bačilović and Sadigo Elnagar. In the prosecutor's investigation, she explained that as far as the money laundering charges are concerned, she pointed out that this is absolutely not true and that she believes that she did not help anyone to launder any money.
Regarding the warehouse space in Port Bar Free Customs Zone, everything related to the purchase of that space, as she said, was completed by her husband Željko, who negotiated with Mića Perović, whom both he and her husband Željko have known from before.
As for those negotiations, when Željko spoke with Miča Perović, she was also present, and that's how the contract for the purchase of that warehouse space was concluded. As for Nikola Bačilović and Elnagar Sadig, she saw them two or three times in her life, but she did not know who they worked for, or whether they worked for anyone. In her defence, she said that she had never heard of Stefan Bubanja.
Today, the court read Bubanja's defense before the Special State Prosecutor's Office, since he is on the run. The defendant's lawyer, lawyer Marija Ćalasan, proposed to the court that his defense be separated from the case file as legally invalid evidence because it was not audio and video recorded. The Council rejected the defense proposal.
He stated that in the middle of 2019, his father-in-law, Arsenije Cako Kalezić, told him that there were problems in Montenegro and that he had to leave the country, but he did not ask what the problems were, so he drove him to Serbia in his car and left him in Belgrade. After a few days, he and "Cako" spoke on Viber, where Kalezić offered him to continue finishing up the company, but he did not tell him what business it was about, but as time passed, he told him that it was about excise goods, and to go to the market "Laković" or Delta, and collect the encrypted phone from the guy to whom he gave his description (the defendant) and the car he was driving.
They continued the communication with an encrypted phone, in which phone there were always 4 or 5 users with installed communication software, and according to Cak's instructions, through the encrypted phone application, he got in contact with Nikola Bačilović and Sadig Elangar, citizens of Serbia whom he placed in a rented apartment behind Delta City.
He further explained that he provided all the logistics regarding the payment of money to the bank, the completion of business in the Port of Bar and other matters for the companies that were opened in their names, namely "World Trade Group" DOO Podorica and Ocean King" DOO Podgorica, and that these two left Cma Gora before the new year and he no longer had any contact with them.
After that, he was tasked to get in touch with Borislav Lečić and Goran Gluščević, also citizens of Serbia, he placed them in Zagorič near the "Šarović" Motel, he provided them with the logistics of signing a lease contract for a warehouse in the free zone of the Port of Bar from the company "Montenegro Tobacco Commerce".
He also explained that he drove Borislav Lečić to those contacts, to the bank and so on, and the company "Tobaco Trade MNE" DOO Podgorica was opened in the name of Borislav Lečić, and "Wild Flowers MNE" in the name of Goran Glušćević. He further explained that they two of them, after a certain time, left for Serbia and he had no contact with them, while all the documentation, seals, facsimiles from the above-mentioned companies and authorizations for him to represent them were with him.
He stated that he was carrying a laptop for "Tobaco Trade MN", to install the "Abakus" software, which is needed for keeping records in the Free Zone of Luka Bar at some guy in the City quarter, at the first roundabout near Delta. He also pointed out that at the beginning of this year, Cako or someone else, he could not remember, sent him messages on an encrypted phone to get in touch with Predrag Veljić, to go to Zagorič and agree on further work.
He also pointed out that Predrag Veljić told him that the company "Bijara" should be transferred to his name in order to complete the work in the Port of Bar, and that together they went to the competent institutions to transfer the company to his name. After that, he went with Predrag Veljić and Ljubomir Bulatović several times in the Port of Bar to complete the paperwork, and after receiving the work license, they were able to organize the removal of cigarettes from the Port of Bar, and for that purpose he found Hikmet Ramović through an advertisement from Bijelo Polje, from whom he bought two trucks, the first Scania" and the second "MAN" with a trailer.
He also explained in that part that he paid about 25.000,00 euros for both trucks, and he got the money for that from a guy he didn't know, on the instructions of the user of the encrypted SSS 400 application, with instructions to go to the City district between Delta and City mall and to take from the guy who will approach him and give him the money that was in the bag. He stated that he and his brother Nikola, on August 9, 8 at five o'clock, started the "MAN" truck with a trailer and that Nikola was driving the truck, while he was driving a gray "Tuaran" and they drove to Luka Bar He also explained that on the way, the user "JOKER" called him and told him to wait for him after the bypass in Zeta, to give him the phone, so he, /the defendant/ stopped at the "Roštiljada" fast food restaurant, and the aforementioned "JOKER" stopped behind him in his car, turning on his high beams so that he could not see him, after which he instructed him to go towards Sutomor and stop to give him the phone.
He stated that he did so, he stopped in Sutomore and took the phone in his bag from a guy he didn't know, asked him (the defendant) if there were workers in the port to load for him. To which he (the defendant) told him that he would depend on it with his brother Nikola. Further instructions were to load the one that Esko knows first, that they arrived at the Port of Bar around 6 o'clock and turned off their phones, and that his brother Nikola took the "Scania", which was already parked in the Port of Bar, they entered the warehouse and began to load cigarettes. Someone unknown to him was driving the forklift, and he and Nikola helped stack it, and when they loaded the Scania truck, he and Nikola drove it through the gate and parked it at "Voli, the market and they got into the gray "Tuaran" and headed towards Podgorica.
He also pointed out that, when they were halfway there, the user "SSS400" contacted him and asked them to see if there was anyone next to the truck and that they should put other plates, to which he told him that he was going to go around the truck. When he passed across the tracks near the Aluminum Plant, he saw the police and informed "SSS400", to which the same replied that he should not approach, that he was going to Bar to export the other truck "MAN" and to hide the seal somewhere, how could that one they wouldn't take the truck and told the driver to get in and drive the truck out himself.
He further stated that he was also instructed by "SSS400" to say that he had resold the truck, to find some useless phone, and that he was called by a man he did not know, that he earned 1.000 euros, and that he did not mention the rest, without accidentally He mentions that he was entering the Port of Bar, as well as going somewhere to hide for five or six days, to the sea or the mountains, to make a change, and that he does not even mention the second phone after that he went home, took all the paperwork from the companies and set off with his brother Nikola to take him to Morača.
He planned to throw the documents off the bridge in Morač and return home. On the way through Zeta, next to the "Fab Live" pump, he was stopped by the police. Only later the next day, when all this was happening, did he realize that it was not a legal business, which he realized the moment the police stopped and detained them." , it is stated in the statement before the Special State Prosecutor's Office.
According to the indictment, Aleksandar Lj. Mrkić, Veselin R. Veljović, Nikola Lj. Mrkić, Mujo Nikočević, Arsenije Kalezić, Stefan D. Bubanja, Nikola D. Bubanja, Željko M. Bulatović from Kolašin, Dušica G. Bulatović. Predrag D. Veljić, Borislav R. Lečić, Nemanja N. Anđelković, Goran M. Gluščević, Nikola M. Bačilović and Sadik A. Elnagar, in the course of 2018, in Cmoja Gora, the defendant Mrkić Aleksandar organized a criminal organization, whose members Veljović Veselin, Nikola Mrkić, Mujo Nikočević, Kalezić Arsenije, Bubanja Stefan, Bubanja Nikola, Bulatović Željko, Bulatović Dušica, Veljić Predrag, Borislav Lečić, Anđelković Nemanja, Gluščević Goran, Bačilović Nikola, Sadig Elnagar and other unidentified persons became defendants. the organization aimed to commit an unspecified number of criminal acts, smuggling and money laundering, in order to gain illegal profits and power. By which the defendant Mrkić Aleksandar committed the criminal offense of creating a criminal organization from Article 401a paragraph 1 in relation to paragraph 6 of the Cme Gora Criminal Code, and the defendants Veljović Veselin, Nikočević Mujo, Mrkić Nikola, Kalezić Arsenije, Bubanja Stefan, Bubanja Nikola, Bulatović Željko, Bulatović Dušica , Veljić Predrag, Lečić Borislav, Anđelković Nemanja, Gluščević Goran, Bačilović Nikola and Sadig Elnagar, the criminal offense of creating a criminal organization from Article 401a paragraph 2 in connection with paragraph 1 16 of the Criminal Code of Cme Gora.
The defendants Mrkić Aleksandar, Nemanja Anđelković and Arsenije Kalezić committed the criminal offense of smuggling as co-perpetrators. Then, the indictment states that the defendants Mrkić Aleksandar, Bubanja Stefan and Bubanja Nikola committed the criminal offense of smuggling as co-perpetrators under Article 265 paragraph 2 in connection with Article 23 paragraph 2 of the Criminal Code of Cme Gora.
The defendant Veljović Veselin committed the criminal offense of abuse of official position under Article 416 paragraph 1 of the Criminal Code of Montenegro.
Defense of Predrag Veljić
"There is nothing new in the indictment apart from what the prosecutor Saša Čađenović charged me with in 2020, when I was detained. If I was really guilty, I certainly wouldn't have watched it in broad daylight. It is devastating that what Čađenović started continues, without "And, Čađenović is known for filing evidence and for the fact that he favored and protected those who had a monopoly on business in the Free Zone of Luka Bar," the accused Predrag said today in his defense. Veljic. He categorically denied that through his former company "Bijara", he did freight forwarding for companies that allegedly smuggled cigarettes. "I sold that company in May 2020 and since then I have had nothing to do with it," stated Veljić. He added that the task of Čađenović and the former chief special prosecutor, Milivoj Katnić, "was to grind others, who came to work honorably and honestly".
"Already, in another case, they took away a decade of my life just because of falsifying evidence," Veljić said.
Detention abolished
At the proposal of lawyers Zdravko Begović and Dražen Medojević, the special panel chaired by judge Vesna Kovačević, today at the trial in the High Court in Podgorica, issued a decision terminating the custody of Mujo Nikočević and Nikola Mrkić, accused of cigarette smuggling in the case against the former director of the Administration of the Veselin Veljović police.
The court prohibited the accused from leaving their place of residence. They are obliged to submit their passports to the court.
Bonus video:
