Special Prosecutor Vukas Radonjić said today in his closing argument at the Higher Court in Podgorica, in the "Apartments" case, that this trial is not politically motivated.
Closing arguments were given before the Podgorica High Court, and the trial is being led by Judge Vesna Kovačević.
"The Special State Prosecutor's Office (SDT) acted in accordance with the law in this proceeding and I reject any claim by the accused and their expert defense that this is a politically motivated proceeding. On the contrary. The proceeding was initiated solely on the basis of my free prosecutorial conviction. I have never in my career engaged in initiating criminal proceedings or proceedings in general, with any other goal, except because I believed that there was a basis for suspicion or a higher degree of suspicion that certain persons had committed a criminal offense for which they are responsible ex officio. I believe that the guilt of the accused has been unequivocally proven," said Radonjić.
He added that it was established beyond doubt that the accused committed the crimes as stated in the indictment.
"Not only did the accused hold high public positions, but it is indisputable for the SDT that during the period specified in the indictment they had the status of high public officials," Radonjić assessed.
He added that the SDT's position is that the Housing Issues Commission could, by law, approve loans of up to 15.000 euros.
The prosecutor concluded that there was no plan to address housing needs from the testimony of the accused Nurković and Šehović, who, as he quoted, stated: "We in the Commission had no idea, we didn't know how much money there was...." "The accused defend themselves by stating that they only examined the formal side of the request, whether the person who submitted the request had the right to do so. And then, as they claim, they sent the requests to the Government for consideration, but did not provide the government with complete information," Radonjić pointed out.
As examples, he cited that some people stated in their applications that they were seeking a loan of 30.000 euros, and were given a larger amount, 40.000 euros.
He said that there are also people for whom these loans were approved who are not public officials.
He cited waitresses from the Property Administration as an example, emphasizing that he does not disparage any job.
"The fact that certain social factors and subjects praised and interpreted the initiation of this procedure in a way that suited their interest groups or organizations or in response to certain political and social events has no impact on the SDT and on me as the case handler," Radonjić emphasized.
Regarding the photocopies of the photocopies that the SDT submitted as evidence in this case, Radonjić pointed out that based on an insight into the case that had previously been dismissed, the investigation established that the then Chief Special Prosecutor had received the Commission's documentation from Predrag Bošković and copied it.
He explained that this was the only logical way for those copies to have been created, from the original documentation, which he could not find now, even though he had searched all the competent authorities.
At the hearings held so far, defense attorneys have pointed out that this is legally invalid evidence. They pointed out that the indictment did not state that these are 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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