UP: Stojaković's lies, it was a routine check

The Police Directorate called yesterday's claims by Serbian citizen Luka Stojaković, a student at the Faculty of Organizational Sciences (FON) at the University of Belgrade, untrue and misleading.

Stojaković said yesterday that he was arrested in Montenegro on February 19th, after refusing a drug test, that he spent 24 hours "in solitary confinement", and that the police thoroughly searched his car. "They apologized to me for this situation and for the torture I experienced, but that it was simply not their fault, they literally said that it was an order from the top," Stojaković claims.

The Police Directorate stated that it was a routine control, and rejected claims that it was selective or acting on "orders from above."

"Regarding the video posted by LS, a citizen of the Republic of Serbia, we inform you of the following: The Police Directorate indignantly rejects LS's claims as untrue and misleading, since they do not reflect the real circumstances of the event, nor are they based on objective facts," the institution announced.

They said that police officers throughout Montenegro are conducting increased daily checks of people for the presence of psychoactive substances and alcohol due to the frequency of this phenomenon, especially among younger road users.

"During such a regular, routine traffic police check, this person was stopped on Put solidarnosti Street in Pljevlja. On that occasion, the police officer informed this person of the aforementioned official action during the check, whereby the person refused to undergo a test for psychoactive substances. This person thus committed a violation under Article 317a, paragraph 1, item 7 of the Law on Road Traffic Safety, and was taken to the premises of the Pljevlja Police Station and brought before the competent Misdemeanor Court within the legal deadline, where the court fined him 600 euros in accordance with the ZOBS, with the obligation to pay 30 euros in court costs," the police say.

They also say that the High Court in Bijelo Polje, taking into account that Stojaković refused a test for psychoactive substances, issued a search warrant for the vehicle, "which also represents a normal legal procedure."

"We would like to point out once again that the officers of the Pljevlja Security Department checked the named person as part of a routine traffic control, as well as intensified activities to sanction the most serious violations, especially driving under the influence of alcohol and psychoactive substances, in order to raise the level of traffic safety throughout Montenegro. Therefore, this is a self-initiative routine action by a police officer in accordance with the law, so we once again reject as untrue the claims that this is a selective or 'order from above' action. We emphasize that the Local Government had no objections to the actions of the police officers," the police statement reads.