At today's hearing at the Podgorica Basic Court, witnesses in the "Tunel" case were heard.
The owner of the business premises from which the tunnel to the depot of the High Court in Podgorica was dug, Tamara Vojvodić, and her mother Nataša Ćuković, were questioned.
They explained that the space was rented through an agency for the purpose of opening a wedding dress salon.
The depot of the High Court in Podgorica was broken into on September 8, 2023, and the thieves stole material evidence stored in that room until September 11, it was established by the investigation of the Podgorica prosecutor's office and the police. The investigators discovered that the underground tunnel, through which the thieves entered the court depot, had been dug since the end of July.
The Basic State Prosecutor's Office in Podgorica filed an indictment against the defendants Veljko M. Marković from Loznica, Milan T. Marković from Loznica, Dejan D. Jovanović from Belgrade, Vladimir M. Erić from Loznica, Predrag M. Mirotić from Zeta, Katarina D. Baćović from Podgorica , Nikola D. Milačić from Podgorica and Marijan P. Vuljaj, living in Tuzi.
Vojvodić said that she rented out the space on July 24th to a person who wanted to open a space for wedding dresses.
"Which was ideal for me because there was no need for any work to be carried out. The police later called me to tell me everything that happened, and my mother and I were called as witnesses. That space is now completely destroyed, there are now three pyramids of rubble inside and I cannot use the space," Vojvodić pointed out.
She said she saw Baćović.
"There was this girl wearing a wig, I thought she had cancer, and the communication with her lasted 20 seconds. They asked me if there was a basement for a tailor in the space, I said I would give the basement for free for six months because it had no floor. I sent the key by courier because I was in Tivat, and I explicitly asked for my name, surname and phone number, but they didn't give it to me, so we left the key somewhere. I said I would come in a month to see the work on the basement. This has caused me great damage, there is a lot of rubble left and now no one wants to undertake any work. When the basement was rented out, it was in a gray area, it was not arranged, the floor needed to be arranged, the floor needed to be done, and there was a wall or bricks on the side. It was two rooms," Vojvodić testified.
Her mother, Ćuković, said that when renting a business space, she asked for Katarina Baćović's ID card because she was suspicious of her because of her wig.
"I thought she was sick, and she told me that she and her sister were going to open a wedding dress salon and live in Austria. After that, I had no contact with that girl. A guy brought me the rent to the entrance of the building, we spoke via text messages. He had a hat and I wouldn't recognize him now. He gave me 1.400 euros. Baćović gave me two deposits, both the first and last rent. That business space belonged to my late brother-in-law, he wanted to build a gallery and started that process, but unfortunately he passed away. After looking at the defendants, I can say that I have never met them in my life nor do I know them. The only thing I can remember about this guy who brought me the rent is that he had a hat and was thinner, about 170 cm," said Ćuković.
They asked about the basement.
At today's hearing, employees of the agency that rented the space to Baćović, Ana Luburić and Kristina Vukčević Laković, testified.
Luburić said that a person contacted the agency to rent a space in the city center, and that a woman came to look at the space, and that a contract was concluded.
"Our website does not state that there is a basement within the business premises, but when they called, they asked if there was a basement," she said.
Vukčević Laković said that she was informed about the case through her colleague Luburić, because they communicated over the phone because she was not in Podgorica.
"They answered an ad from an Austrian number, looking for business space to open a wedding dress salon. The girl was coming, we called the owners to agree on the details," she said at the hearing today.
Testimonies were also read today from Mladen Radovanović, an employee at the High Court depot, as well as former President of the High Court Boris Savić.
"When I returned from sick leave, President Savić gave me the key because he was the only one who could have it in my absence. I didn't notice anything strange, and on September 8, 2023, I locked the depot at the end of the week. On Monday, September 11, I came to work, drank coffee in the office and read the newspaper, went to the depot. I saw footprints in the hallway and saw something on the right side. I followed the footprints and saw weapons thrown, then I went to the drug room where everything was scattered. I immediately called the president and he said that someone should call the police immediately. The items for 2022 and 2023 had been disturbed. In the late hours during the inventory, my colleagues found a hole in the wall while they were doing the inventory. When I was on sick leave, no one had a key except the president. There are no cameras in the hallway or video surveillance in the depot, and I demanded that cameras be installed, but they told me that there was no money for it," Radovanović read. testimony of judge Borko Lončar.
He then read Boris Savić's statement.
"I immediately went to see what had happened, I saw signs of a break-in, we immediately called the police. I immediately asked for an inventory to be carried out to determine what was missing. We started to make an inventory of the weapons because they were scattered. In the evening, during the inventory, a colleague saw a hole in the wall and we informed the police who were there. The largest number of packages had been ransacked in the 'Kašćelan' case. In one of the two packages where the laptops and phones were, it looked as if nothing was missing, which is yet to be determined. The rifles that were part of the case in the murder of Duško Jovanović were not missing. My impression was that the weapons were seized indiscriminately. I believe that the public did not need to know anything about what was missing from the depot. Not just anyone can enter the depot, I was at work every day and I never heard or noticed anything strange. Personally, I think that putting cameras in the depot is unnecessary because the cameras are located on the driveway. My opinion is that the intention was to seize the drugs that were in the depot, i.e. that they who broke in wanted to get cocaine. They didn't know that the cocaine was placed somewhere else, so it seems to me that they randomly chose a weapon that was in good condition," Judge Lončar read the statement that Savić gave in front of the prosecutor before the tunnel was dug in 2023.
At tomorrow's hearing, the hearing of Maja Baćović, an employee of the Higher Court, who is the mother of the accused Katarina Baćović, is scheduled.
Bonus video:
