The Podgorica High Court has released a video recording of the reading of the indictment and the guilty pleas from the trial of Chief Special Prosecutor Milivoj Katnić, his deputy Sasa Čađenović, and former Assistant Director of the Police for Combating Organized Crime Zoran Lazović, which began today.
The court charges them with criminal offenses in the field of organized crime, and Katnić, Čađenović and Lazović pleaded not guilty to any of the criminal offenses they are charged with today.
The president of the panel of judges, Veljko Radovanović, gave a break after their statements.
The decision of the pre-trial panel of the Higher Court in Podgorica confirmed the indictment of the SDT, charging Lazović with having committed the criminal offenses of creating a criminal organization under Article 401a, paragraph 1, in conjunction with paragraph 6 of the Criminal Code of Montenegro, abuse of official position under Article 416, paragraph 1, of the Criminal Code of Montenegro, abuse of official position under Article 416, paragraph 1, in conjunction with Article 23, paragraph 2, of the Criminal Code of Montenegro, the extended criminal offense of money laundering under Article 268, paragraph 1, in conjunction with Article 49 of the Criminal Code of Montenegro, and the extended criminal offense of illegal possession and carrying of weapons and explosives under Article 403, paragraph 2, in conjunction with paragraph 1 in connection with Article 49 of the Criminal Code of Montenegro, and the defendant MK is charged with the criminal offense of creating a criminal organization under Article 401a, paragraph 2 in connection with paragraphs 1 and 6 of the Criminal Code of Montenegro, two criminal offenses of abuse of official position under Article 416, paragraph 1 in connection with Article 23, paragraph 2 of the Criminal Code of Montenegro and the criminal offense of illegal possession and carrying of weapons and explosives under Article 403, paragraph 1 of the Criminal Code of Montenegro. According to the panel, the evidence presented in the indictment justifies the existence of reasonable suspicion that the defendants Lazović and Katnić committed the criminal offenses charged against them in the indictment.
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In October last year, the Special State Prosecutor's Office submitted an indictment against Lazović and Katnić to the Higher Court in Podgorica, charging them with creating a criminal organization, abuse of official position, the extended criminal offense of money laundering, and the extended criminal offense of illegal possession and carrying of weapons and explosives.
Lazović is accused of organizing a criminal organization in 2020, whose members included Katnić and Čađenović and other unknown individuals, and of collaborating with a criminal organization organized by the estranged leader of the Kavač clan, Radoje Zvicer.
The former GST is accused of abusing his official position in January 2022, together with the accused prosecutor Čađenović, who was the case handler, and of obtaining benefits for the accused Petar Lazović, police officers Ljubo Milović, Radoje Zvicer and Duško Roganović, and seven other members of that criminal organization.
Bonus video:
