"I would rather be in the dock today than have those who the alleged victims of this case planned to kill found themselves underground," a police officer said yesterday in the courtroom of the Basic Court. Petar Lazovic.
He and his colleague Jugoslav Raičević before the judge Ilija Radulović are being held accountable for the torture of alleged members of the Skaljar clan Milo Jovanovic i Jovan Mrvaljević.
Both denied guilt, claiming that the proceedings were initiated to discredit them.
At the beginning of the main trial, Judge Radulović said that, based on the order from the previous hearing, the prosecution submitted a statement on the manner in which the transcripts from the Sky application were obtained.
He explained that the Special State Prosecutor's Office contacted the judicial authorities of France and, in response to that request for legal assistance, they were provided with communication between Petar Lazović, Radoja Zvicer, Ljub Milović and others.
Explaining why he is rejecting the defendants' defense attorneys' proposal to remove two CDs with transcripts from the Sky app from the case file, the judge said that "the fact is that this could be electronic evidence, which we could classify as evidence that we use in our law."
One of Lazović's defense attorneys, a lawyer Nikola Martinovic, He then requested that the court, in accordance with the applicable Law on Digital Documents and the Council of Europe Regulation from 2014, disclose the time, place and manner of creation of the digital document.
His other defense attorney, a lawyer Borivoje Borović, assessed that the court was premature in making the decision "that the electronic document that the prosecution claims is evidence will be used in the proceedings."
Lazović's third defense attorney, lawyer Marko Radovic, he reiterated that the transcripts from the case file were not obtained by request for the purposes of those proceedings.
He pointed out that he believes that the state of Montenegro has violated the principle of trust in international cooperation and that the letter of request that exists in the case files, with which the SDT addressed France, does not refer to that procedure and the criminal offenses that Lazović and Raičević are charged with:
"But for some other and more serious crimes, for which a prison sentence of 10 years or more is foreseen. That is what the defense insists on - to determine whether there is a letter of request for these acts."
The judge rejected their proposals, stating that it would lead to a delay in the proceedings, after which Lazović and Raičević presented their defense.
Both refused to answer questions from anyone except their defense attorneys.
FANTASIES AND GODS OF KORONE
Lazović said he was doing this because, after presenting his defense in detail to the prosecutor and answering questions from everyone present, he realized that her goal was not to establish the truth, but to prosecute him.
"The court had the same goal in the phase of confirming the indictment. I understand the background of the criminal prosecution against me - to criminalize everything that we have achieved in the sector in which I worked, and to relativize our results," he said.
He added that they received recognition from the European Commission for the results they achieved, emphasizing that it is paradoxical that those they fought against, and who, as he claims, planned the commission of the most serious crimes, are now presenting themselves as victims.
"I would like to point out that we never tortured these people, or any others. We acted legally. It is interesting that no one mentions the actions that are being taken against the injured parties here for the most serious crimes, the implementation of which they were prevented by me and my colleagues. It is devastating that the indictment is based on the statements of those who planned to take the lives of other people, which we prevented them from doing," he said.
Responding to Borović's questions, he said that a weapon with machined numbers, overalls, gloves, surgical masks, and an encrypted phone were found in the car in which they were damaged.
"According to our operational findings, these individuals were preparing to commit the most serious crimes and the items that were found were used only for that purpose," he said.
Borović was also interested in why the police officers wore balaclavas, so Lazović said that they did so because of the coronavirus.
"The masks are used to conceal identity, for the safety of us and our families, and at that time there was corona, so we wore them for that reason as well," he said, adding that he never took off his mask in front of the injured parties, nor did he introduce himself to them by name.
He explained that even before the critical event, they had operational knowledge that Mrvaljević was a member of a criminal organization, but that he did not know which one exactly: "Because it doesn't matter to me which one."
Lazović and Jugoslav Raičević are on trial before the Podgorica Basic Court for the torture of the Skalj clan member Jovan Mrvaljević, and Lazović is also on trial for the torture of Milo Jovanović, an alleged member of the Kotor clan.
Although he repeatedly reiterated that the injured parties in that case planned to commit the most serious crimes, he claimed that they were brought from the Nikšić Security Center to the premises of the Sector for Combating Organized Crime without handcuffs in their capacity as citizens.
He also said that he was not wearing military boots that night, but sneakers, like everyone else on his team, and that they were "dressed casually", and emphasized that they were always dressed uniformly, and had the same or similar clothing and camouflage uniforms.
THE JUDGE DETERMINED THE EYE COLOR
His colleague Jugoslav Raičević emphasized that he understands the language of the indictment, but that he does not admit guilt, nor does he feel guilty.
"I don't feel guilty, and I'm sure this court will determine that... I saw Mrvaljević for the first time in my life that night. He complained that he had diabetes, after that we acted in the only way possible - humanely and professionally, taking him to the hospital. From this position, although I'm not a doctor, I think he felt more like going to the hospital that night than to the police," Raičević said.
He assessed that the indictment was drawn up to discredit him.
"I didn't know who this person was, but I'm sure he told this to harm me personally and discredit me, and I don't know if he can make it easier for himself in the proceedings against him in this way," he said.
He added that he did not know that he was a member of a criminal organization: "To be honest, he seemed like a kid to me,"
The judge asked Raičević to come forward in order to determine the color of the accused's eyes, since the injured party claimed that he had very light blue or green eyes. After that, it was determined that his eyes were chestnut.
When the judge read Lazović's statement to him, Raičević said he had no objection, but he had a clarification:
"The team wasn't his. I had a chief Mirko Banović and I was the leader of one group, the leader of the other was Ivan Djokovic "and so on, without further ado," he said.
Lazović then explained that when he described the team of officers, although he said "my team", he meant the team he belonged to, not the one he led.
"Because I was certainly not the leader of that team, nor anyone's superior, and they were all my comrades and friends. Of all the people in the Sector, I had the least authority, I listened to everyone," he said, adding that it is presented differently in public.
Legal representative of injured parties, lawyer Tatjana Pavličić, she said that the defendants pleaded guilty in order to discredit the injured parties, and that she therefore had to point out that Jovanović and Mrvaljević were not arrested on December 30 or 31, 2020, when they were tortured according to the indictment, nor were they ever prosecuted for the weapons found in the car:
"The items that were found are not owned by any of them, because if they were, they would have been prosecuted."
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