The court in Podgorica does not have a record of the activities of the special forces officer who, in September 2023, walked the entire length of the tunnel dug from the basement of an apartment on Njegoševa Street to the High Court depot, said the lawyer for the defendant Vladimir Erić in that case, Stefan Jovanović.
At a hearing held today at the Basic Court, members of the anti-sabotage inspection group who checked for explosive devices in the tunnel were heard.
One of the members of that group, Tihi Dedijer, said that a member of the Anti-Terrorist Unit (PTJ) entered the tunnel.
Judge Borko Lončar said that this circumstance was new to the court proceedings, and therefore the court ex officio ordered that in the further course of the proceedings all the minutes of the Anti-Sabotage Protection Group, drawn up on the occasion of the inspection of the tunnel, be obtained. In addition, he ordered that in the continuation of the evidentiary proceedings, information be obtained from the Police Directorate and the PTJ on which police officer passed through the tunnel in question, that is, which officers were engaged in these tasks, and in order to possibly be heard. The court also ordered that Đokić Braunović, the police officer who drew up the reports on the crime scene, which relate to the incident in question, be heard as a witness.
Dedijer described that the team he is a member of went to the scene to check for any danger from explosive devices.
For this, as Dedijer said, they used a robot that can move and is used to scout the area.
He explained that they had inserted a robot into the tunnel, which they use to check for the possible presence of explosive devices, and that it has video cameras, and footage from that camera was shown at today's hearing. The footage shows that the tunnel was secured with wooden structures and foam to prevent it from collapsing.
According to him, on the first day, they conducted the inspection with the robot from the basement of the apartment, but they did not go through the entire tunnel, but came to a part where the tunnel went in the other direction, and that is why they had to return the device because the signal was lost.
Dedijer said today that on the second day of the reconnaissance, a member of the special police unit entered the tunnel and physically walked through the tunnel, describing him as two meters tall and slender, explaining that he was following a robot.
He added that the re-examination was carried out from the direction of the High Court archives, with "the robot passing the entire length, followed by a special agent, and that they went out into the basement of the apartment."
He pointed out that "a record was certainly made of this passage," although it was not documented in the court files.
Prosecutor Marko Mugoša said that this undoubtedly proved that the tunnel was passable and existed, "which was somehow disputed."
Raković: On the first day, the special forces entered a few meters, on the second day, the entire way
Another member of the counter-sabotage inspection group, Igor Raković, confirmed that the first entry into the tunnel was from the side of the High Court depot. “We inserted the robot through that opening… we quickly returned the device.”
He recalled that that day, a PTJ police officer "retracted the first few meters, but turned back for safety reasons."
Raković confirmed that the special forces officer walked the entire length of the tunnel the next day, and, according to him, he started from the High Court depot and went out into the basement of the apartment.
He described the officer as "slim, about 185 cm tall, weighing maybe 80 kilos", and stated that the device "was in front of the special forces officer the whole time".
Đurišić: The passage of the special forces through the tunnel took about 20 minutes
The third member of the group, Ivan Đurišić, said that according to his estimate, the passage of the special forces through the tunnel took about 20 minutes, including preparation time.
He explained that the hole in the wall was slightly modified, or widened, to allow the robot to be inserted, but not significantly. He described the hole in the wall as being 50 cm from the ground and that the special police unit officer had to crawl in and back out.
He explained that the special forces officer had mountaineering equipment, had harnesses and was tied with a rope in case he got stuck or something happened so he could get out. Đurišić described the member of the anti-terrorist unit who passed through the tunnel as being about 195cm tall and weighing 85 kilos.
Construction expert Tanja Drakulović said at yesterday's hearing that based on everything she saw on site, she could not say whether the tunnel was passable along its entire length. The court therefore called members of that group yesterday, who testified today that the tunnel was passable.
Mirotic: I don't know how the police came to the conclusion that I was in these videos
Surveillance camera footage showing the movement of the van that was allegedly used to rob the depot was shown in the courtroom today. The vehicle was found in September 2023 in the Botun settlement near Podgorica, and the accused Predrag Mirotić said that he did not recognize any of the vehicles from the video footage, and that he thought they were several different vehicles, and that he did not recognize the Renault Clio that he stated in the defense that he had used from his sister.
"I don't know how anyone from the Police Directorate came to the conclusion that I was driving the Renault Clio and that I was in these videos," Mirotic said today.
The court therefore issued a decision ordering an expert examination by a digital forensics expert, who will, based on an insight into the video footage shown at today's main hearing, state whether it is possible to determine the license plate numbers on the vehicle that is the subject of surveillance, especially on footage in which the vehicle is seen from a wider angle.
The government has given its consent to restore the tunnel to its original condition.
Judge Lončar today read the Government's conclusion, which gave its consent to the work on restoring the tunnel to its original condition, and the Cadastre and State Property Administration is responsible for implementing this measure. The defense, however, said that the Government had no right to carry out any interventions, including filling in the tunnel or other actions related to its restoration.
Ex officio, the court ordered that all documentation related to the implementation of the Government Conclusion of September 28, 2023 be obtained from the Cadastre and State Property Administration.
Thus, the trial of 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, residing in Tuzi, continued today.
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.
Bonus video:
