The Court of Appeals confirmed the verdict of the Higher Court in Podgorica from February 27, which sentenced Igor Nikić to a single sentence of 15 years and six months in prison for the murder of Dragan Ševaljević and illegal possession of weapons.
The Court of Appeals, after a panel session on September 2, issued a verdict rejecting the appeal of defense attorney Nikić as unfounded.
Ševaljević was killed on October 15, 2022, in a restaurant in the center of Podgorica.
The appeal against the first-instance verdict was filed by the defendant's defense attorney, due to "a significant violation of the provisions of criminal procedure, an incorrectly and incompletely determined factual situation and the decision on punishment," the statement recalls.
"In deciding on the appeal, the Court of Appeals assessed that the first instance court provided clear and complete reasons, which this court also accepted, as to why it did not accept the defense's position that the accused committed the murder on the spot, and therefore correctly applied the Criminal Code to the correctly and completely established factual situation when it legally assessed the actions of the accused Igor Nikić as the criminal offense of murder in conjunction with the criminal offense of illegal possession of weapons and explosives."
The Court of Appeals examined the contested verdict in the part of the decision on the sentence contested by the defense attorney's appeal, and found that the first instance court correctly determined and sufficiently evaluated all circumstances that had an impact on the choice of criminal sanction and that were important for the sentence to be higher or lower.
In the opinion of the Court of Appeal, the imposed prison sentence of 15 years and six months represents an adequate sentence for the gravity of the criminal offense and the degree of guilt of the accused, so "it is to be expected that it will achieve the purpose of punishment within the general purpose of imposing criminal sanctions," the statement reads.
The verdict will be published on the website of the Court of Appeal.
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