The Police Directorate and the acting director of that institution, Lazar Šćepanović, reacted to yesterday's allegations by Olivera Krivokapić, the former head of the Branch for Administrative Affairs, Citizenship and Foreigners in Cetinje.
They said that she "calculatedly deceives and discredits the public," making claims that "have no basis or foundation" in the Weapons Act.
They point out, among other things, that the Police Directorate was unable to seize legal weapons from Vuk Borilović, who committed mass murder in Cetinje in 2022, without a prior administrative procedure and a decision by the regional authority.
"In order to provide a precise and additional explanation to the public regarding yesterday's denial by the Police Directorate, as well as the reaction of the former head of the Administrative Internal Affairs Branch in Cetinje, against whom criminal proceedings are being conducted, we are clarifying the steps and further institutional actions of the Police Directorate, namely the failure to take measures and actions by the regional authority and the responsible person when it comes to the consistent application of the Law on Weapons. Namely, the suspect OK, with her allegations yesterday, deliberately deceives and discredits the public, making claims that have no basis or foundation in the Law on Weapons.
"When it comes to the possession of legal weapons by Vuk Borilović, we emphasize that, pursuant to the Law on Weapons, the competent Branch for Administrative Internal Affairs in Cetinje, as an authority, was obliged, based on the notification submitted by the Police Directorate informing the Branch about the filing of a criminal report against Vuk Borilović for a criminal offense with elements of violence, to initiate and conduct administrative proceedings, review, audit and, by appropriate decision, seize the weapon from the person, or request and order the same person to return the weapon to the Branch, as clearly prescribed by the Law.
"In this context, we clarify further legal steps that this Branch should have taken, but which were missed in relation to the person Vuk Borilović. Namely, that the responsible persons reviewed the permit for possession of weapons and issued an appropriate decision to the person Vuk Borilović, obliging him to return the weapon to the Branch, leaving him a legal deadline within which he could do so, and that if the person does not comply with the legal deadline to return the weapon, the regional authority, or the Branch, could only then submit that decision to the Police Directorate, as a notification, which would make the weapon considered illegal by the Police Directorate, because the decision revokes the person's right to legally possess a weapon.
"We emphasize that none of these actions were taken by the Regional Authority for Administrative Internal Affairs in Cetinje, and therefore the Police Directorate was not able to seize the legal weapon from the aforementioned person without a prior administrative procedure and a decision by the regional authority.
"That the Branch and the responsible person failed to take legally prescribed measures and actions is further confirmed by the indictment filed by the Basic State Prosecutor's Office in Cetinje against OK, based on the formed case files, among which the evidence includes a criminal report and a notification to the regional authority for the person Vuk Borilović, which represents one of the key pieces of evidence that OK failed to legally and consistently apply the Law on Weapons.
"The Police Department, within the scope of its jurisdiction, recognized the grounds for confiscating the weapon from the person Vuk Borilović in accordance with the Law on Weapons due to the fact that this person, by his actions, or rather by committing the criminal offense of violent behavior, violated the provisions of Article 13 of the Law on Weapons, which clearly stipulates that a permit to acquire weapons may be issued to a natural person if, among other things, the person has not been convicted by a final judgment for criminal offenses that contain elements of violence, or if no proceedings have been initiated against him for those criminal offenses. In this specific case, the regional authority was immediately instructed to file a criminal report against the person Vuk Borilović for committing the criminal offense of violent behavior, the criminal proceedings for which were soon initiated by the Basic Court in Cetinje, and the very fact that the Branch was officially informed that the person Vuk Borilović had disturbed relations with his environment through violent behavior represented a key justified legal basis for the review and revision, or the confiscation of the weapons license and weapon from the said person.
"We emphasize that the Police Directorate does not seize legal weapons except in cases where it is suspected that a criminal offense was committed with them, and upon obtaining an order from the competent court during the conduct of search operations, so in the case of Borilović, the Police pointed out a violation of the provisions of the Law on Weapons, the possession of which can be abused, and for whose further action the regional authority is exclusively competent.
"Namely, Article 48 of the Law on Weapons stipulates the obligation of the Ministry of Internal Affairs to seize weapons, ammunition and weapons documents from a natural person who ceases to meet any of the conditions set out in Article 13 of the Law on Weapons, which in the specific case of Vuk Borilović represented the initiation of criminal proceedings, which met the condition for the seizure of legally owned weapons.
"Let's go a step further, when the officers of the Police Directorate launched an intelligence project codenamed 'Browing' across the entire country and prosecuted several managers of branches of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for abuse of official position, they prosecuted them with a criminal report and OK due to reasonable suspicion that she, appointed as an employee in a management position at the Cetinje Branch for Civil Status and Personal Documents, committed the criminal offense of abuse of official position, in a way that, by illegally exploiting her official position and authority, as well as by failing to perform her official duty, she obtained benefits for other persons by issuing firearms licenses contrary to the provisions of Article 13 of the Weapons Act.
"In the actions of the OK and MP that are included in the criminal report, as is reasonably suspected, the elements of the criminal offense of abuse of official position are met, where in 17 separate cases, the provisions of the Law on Weapons were acted upon and on which occasion weapon licenses were issued to persons who did not have a permanent residence in the territory of the municipality of Cetinje.
"With this clarification, the Police Directorate ceases all further communication with the suspect through the media and leaves it to other law enforcement authorities - the prosecutor's office and the court - to make a lawful decision and determine the material truth," the response reads.
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