Remove patrols while cigarettes are passed? Colleagues accuse, prosecution dismisses charges against Milija Vukanić

The prosecutor explained that she dismissed the report because it lacked the elements of a criminal offense that could be prosecuted ex officio.

She claims that she requested exemption from handling the case, but that her request was not accepted, so she exempted Vukanić's wife - the only recorder in the Kolašin prosecutor's office.

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Were police officers ordered to close their eyes as trucks passed by (illustration), Photo: Illustration created with the help of artificial intelligence
Were police officers ordered to close their eyes as trucks passed by (illustration), Photo: Illustration created with the help of artificial intelligence
Disclaimer: The translations are mostly done through AI translator and might not be 100% accurate.

Despite the claims of two Kolašin police officers - that their former chief Milija Vukanić ordered traffic patrols to be removed from the main road that runs through that city, so that someone's trucks could pass, the Basic State Prosecutor's Office (ODT) in Kolašin dismissed the criminal charges against that, now retired, police official.

This decision was made by the head of the Kolašin Public Prosecutor's Office, the prosecutor Maja Šćepanović, which responded to Vijesti that it had dismissed the report because the actions of the person reported did not contain elements of the criminal offense of abuse of official position, nor of any other criminal offense for which prosecution is undertaken ex officio.

She also explained that she had requested exemption from acting in the case, but that her request was not accepted, so she exempted Vukanić's wife, the only recorder in the Kolasin prosecutor's office.

According to Vijesti, the case was formed based on a letter from the Kolašin Security Department, written after two police officers reported to the chief. Zoran Braunović admitted that Vukanić had strange requests - to move patrols, and that there was evidence of this in their patrol logs.

Allegedly, they did this after the former director of the Police Directorate was deprived of his liberty at the end of 2023. Slavko Stojanovic, who pleaded guilty in September 2024 to letting a truckload of smuggled cigarettes pass.

After members of the Special Police Department arrested the former police chief, two police officers told Braunović what demands they had made of their former superior, linking it to the fact that a truck loaded with cigarettes had been allowed to pass.

Vijesti has learned that their statements specify how many times, from May 2018 to May 2021, Vukanić allegedly asked them to move patrols from the main road to the gravel road, where they usually don't even stand...

The police officers explained that they had to withdraw the patrols towards Mateševo, where they normally only went in case of intervention or a report, and not to control traffic on a rural road next to the priority section...

After they made official notes, they were forwarded from the Kolašin police to the Special Police Department, and a little later, the Special State Prosecutor's Office handed over the case files to colleagues at the Kolašin ODT.

"I would like to inform you that on 24.12.2024. the Basic State Prosecutor's Office in Kolašin issued a decision to dismiss the criminal report - case files formed pursuant to the letter of the Security Department in Kolašin No. 66-239/23-10594 formed against Vukanić Milija, the former head of the Security Department in Kolašin, for the criminal offense of abuse of official position under Article 416, paragraph 1 of the Criminal Code of Montenegro, because the actions of the reported person do not contain the elements of the criminal offense for which he is being reported, nor any other criminal offense for which prosecution is being undertaken ex officio. The applicants and the Police Administration of the Security Department in Kolašin were duly notified of the rejection of the report in accordance with Article 271 of the Criminal Procedure Code, along with legal advice in accordance with the provisions of the Law. The case was handled by the head of the ODT in Kolašin, Šćepanović Maja," the prosecutor's office replied to Vijesti.

Responding to additional questions, Šćepanović said that she had reviewed the patrol sheets:

"I emphasize that during the evidentiary procedure, I reviewed the patrol sheets of the Kolašin Security Department, interpreted them in the decision on rejection, and they were evaluated objectively and in accordance with the Law."

Asked whether she had requested an exemption, if so, why, and whether her associate was Vukanić's wife, Šćepanović replied:

"In this case, after the files were submitted by the Special State Prosecutor's Office, I requested the exemption of the Basic State Prosecutor's Office in Kolašin, given that at that time I was the only acting prosecutor. The request for exemption was rejected as unfounded. The reason for the exemption was the fact that the reported Vukanić Milija is the husband of Vukanic Gordana who is employed at the Basic State Prosecutor's Office in Kolašin. Vukanić Gordana is not my associate, but an independent clerk - recorder employed at the Basic State Prosecutor's Office in Kolašin, which otherwise has only one recorder. I also inform you that by my decision I exempted Vukanić Gordana from acting in this case, and during the conduct of evidentiary actions, a recorder from the Higher State Prosecutor's Office in Bijelo Polje acted," she said.

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