The trial in the "Apartments" case, in which members of the Commission for Resolving Housing Issues of the Government of Montenegro from 2016-2020, are charged with abuse of official position, continued at the Higher Court in Podgorica.
The president of the panel of judges, Vesna Kovačević, said that the written evidence, the documentation of the Housing Commission, which was conducted, are photocopies of photocopies.
Special Prosecutor Vukas Radonjić explained that this is a copy of the documentation obtained in the previous proceedings.
Kovačević said that the court had not received a response to the letter sent to the Government of Montenegro requesting the delivery of original documentation.
The court set a deadline of April 7th for the Government of Montenegro to respond, to which it will send an urgent request to obtain the original documentation.
Radonjić pointed out that he, like the court, tried to obtain original documentation during the investigation, but that it had either been destroyed or did not exist.
Defense attorneys pointed out that this was legally invalid evidence. They pointed out that the indictment did not state that these were copies.
An indictment was filed against the defendants Predrag Bošković, Budimir Šegrt, Suad Numanović, Sanja Vlahović, Ivan Brajović, Dražen Miličković, Damir Šehović, Dragica Sekulić, Osman Nurković, Suzana Pribilović, Jelena Radonjić and Aleksandar Jovićević, due to the existence of reasonable suspicion that, in the period from 2016 to 2020, as members of the Housing Commission of the Government of Montenegro, they, as co-perpetrators, committed the extended criminal offense of abuse of official position, for which a prison sentence of two to 12 years is prescribed.
"The defendants are charged with the fact that, contrary to the Decision on the method and criteria for solving the housing needs of officials, which stipulated that the solution of housing needs is realized according to the plan for solving housing needs that contains the amount of funds for granting loans to improve housing conditions, that can grant a loan to improve housing conditions in the amount of up to 15.000 euros, and that the amount of the loan is determined based on the scope of work assessed by the expert committee of the then Property Administration, without a plan for solving housing needs and assessment by the expert committee of the Administration, approved and granted housing loans for improvement of living conditions for 119 public officials and employees in state bodies and state administration bodies, in amounts between 17.500 and 40.000 euros, thus benefiting them and causing damage to the budget of Montenegro, in the total amount of 2.604,740,59 euros. Radonjić explained then.
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