Suspected head of organized crime group Aleksandar Mijajlovic he negotiated with the current president of the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) Danijel Živković to treat him to a new Samsung phone, their messages cited by special prosecutors show, but if that exchange did take place - the gift was not reported to the competent Agency for the Prevention of Corruption (ASK).
Živković did not respond to a set of questions from Vijesti about this, but last night he sent a statement denying the claims of the Special State Prosecutor's Office (SDT) and saying that they are trying to discredit him, out of revenge.
"... To be completely clear - no. I did not receive a phone from Aleksandar Mijajlović as a gift and there are no fabricated messages from the SDT that can prove otherwise. And I will be happy to answer all questions from the Special State Prosecutor's Office and the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption about the phone and everything else," the politician said in a text submitted to the media.
However, from the telephone communication between Mijajlović and Živković noted in the order for the investigation, it can be seen that the then MP of the strongest opposition party accepted the businessman's offer on March 1, 2022, and they agreed to bring the mobile phone to his apartment.
This correspondence is only part of the data collected by the Special State Prosecutor's Office (SDT) to prove the alleged influence of this criminal organization on the political and executive authorities, the media and "other important economic and social factors"...
According to these allegations, Mijajlović first asked Živković which mobile phone he uses - "iPhone" or "Samsung", and the politician replied that he has the latter and asked him why he was interested in it.
"I thought I was changing it, but something got complicated at this branch. I'm staying loyal to 'Samsung'," writes the DPS MP, after which Mijajlović explains that they are "the same" and that he should soon receive a model of that phone marked "22" as a gift...
"So I'm looking for 2... That's why I'm asking," the businessman explains.
"Ahahahahah... You see, I won't buy it then," he replies.
"Don't, don't... We're waiting for T-com," after which Živković replies "okay"...
Prosecutors cite that they heard about this four months later - Mijajlović writes to him on July 4, 2022:
"When you're free, I'll give you the phone... It finally arrived - black or bronze, which one do you want?" she asks him.
Živković replies that he doesn't care, but then decides on black.
"... It's with me... So call me when I can bring it to you."
"I'll call you after work, as soon as I finish work if you're free," Živković writes.
After a while, Živković asks him "where are you going", and he replies:
“Bemax Arena... I'm watching a game... Do you want me to come over around 6:30 PM when it ends?”...
Živković responds that the agreement is fine:
"Okay... I'm going to the apartment," the politician writes, and Mijajlović announces that he will call him.
What does the law say?
According to the Law on the Prevention of Conflict of Interest, a public official, in connection with the performance of his/her duties, may not accept gifts, except for "protocol and occasional" gifts...
Based on this regulation, a gift from a representative of another state or international organization given during a visit, guest appearance or on other occasions, as well as other gifts given on similar occasions, is considered protocol.
A gift worth up to 50 euros is considered an appropriate gift.
The retail price of the “Samsung S 22” phone is now 720 euros, with a discount, according to the website of one of the Podgorica technology stores. If it is the same phone they were talking about, its price was many times higher at the time. The series of that phone was presented on February 9, 2022, and went on sale around February 25 of the same year. The businessman promised the politician the phone on March 1, 2022.
A public official, it says, may not accept an occasional gift if he is not sure whether the value of the gift exceeds 50 euros.
"If a public official receives multiple gifts from the same donor in one year, the total value of those gifts may not exceed 50 euros, and if he receives multiple gifts from multiple donors during that time, the value of those gifts may not exceed 100 euros," states Article 18 of the Law on the Prevention of Corruption.
It is additionally stated that the ban also applies to persons associated with a public official, "if the receipt of the gift is in connection with the public official, or the performance of a public function"...
"The records of gifts are kept by the government body, which is obliged to submit these records to the Agency. Everything that has been submitted to the Agency is already in publicly available databases," ASK told Vijesti yesterday.
Previous managements of the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption, headed by With pleasure Radonjić i Jelena Perović, has issued several decisions in which they stated that there is no liability of public officials after receiving gifts, because it has not been proven that they received them in connection with the performance of their duties. Some of these decisions, however, were overturned before the Administrative Court.
The new management of the Agency, acting on the verdicts, in some of those cases held the position that officials "were obliged to refuse the gift or inform the donor that they could not accept the gift."
Are our people going to the elections?
In addition to Živković, prosecutors claim, evidence that the criminal group influenced political authorities, the media... can also be seen from Mijajlović's communications with "representatives of political parties in Montenegro... Ivan Vuković (DPS), Miloš Nikolić (DPS), Jugoslav Jakić (DPS) and Predrag Bošković (DPS)...
They explain that the suspected head of the criminal group, among other things, corresponded with the president of the Municipality of Šavnik on November 13, 2022. On that day, elections were held for the fourth time in that small town in the north of the country, and they would again prove unsuccessful.
Mijajlović writes to him on the Viber application: "And ours? Are they going out?"
"We are now pushing these 'controversial' ones," Jakić replies.
Two years earlier - on April 26, 2020, the then mayor of Podgorica Ivan Vukovic sends messages to the defendant Mijajlović:
"Morning, friends. Pipers will soon be ready for the asphalt. We will finish by 21.05. We wouldn't be so quick if you hadn't come to our aid," a DPS official sends, and prosecutors quote him in the document.
The now detained businessman replies: "Great!! ... Just let it end and of course we'll get them for the elections @ @".
Either Montenegro will win or we will have Stalinist purges
"The Special State Prosecutor's Office, headed by Vladimir Novović, through a constructed process that began on Friday, has entered a phase of open political confrontation with all dissenters of the current clerical-nationalist government," the politician stated in a text submitted to the media.
Živković states in a statement that it is "completely natural" for him to be the target of the SDT, as the leader of the strongest party in Montenegro: "Which managed to resist what were the intentions of those who ordered this action - instead of the planned 10-12 percent support, the Democratic Party of Socialists today has a rating of close to 30 percent."
"This circumstance, as well as the fact that the current government is falling apart at the seams, and that the Prosecutor's Office could soon be formally delegitimized in the Parliament of Montenegro, was the red light that made the action that started on Friday morning official. An action that will have only one end - either Montenegro will win or we will have a totalitarian regime on the scene that, through Stalinist purges and public defamation through suitable media, should create an atmosphere of fear in which anyone can be a target."
He stated that everything that is happening is not a surprise "to any slightly better informed individual":
"Because it was a matter of days before the fabrications and UDBA-style subterfuge, whose source is unmistakably always Vladimir Novović or Predrag Šuković, and which, through fake and fabricated information created by the National Security Agency, are presented to foreign partners as an argument for the undesirability of the Democratic Party of Socialists, would be translated into an indictment - the official one that goes to court, or the unofficial one that is written on the front pages."
Živković states that in this way, "this whole tangle of nonsense" took an absurd turn:
"After months of playing out the lie that I got an apartment from Bemax, which I - and I thank him for that - had the opportunity to publicly deny with journalist Petar Komnenić, it turned into an even more absurd claim - that I got, watch out: a mobile phone from Bemax, or rather Aleksandar Mijajlović. I guess when the Prosecutor's Office was convinced that I live in an apartment paid for by the Parliament of Montenegro and that at the age of 38 I still have an unresolved housing issue, they saw that they needed something new."
He said that, while consciously trying to morally defame him in public, they had at least gotten one thing right: "I care deeply about my personal morality, honor, and protecting the integrity of my family."
"Because unlike them - who appointed their godfathers as prosecutors and assigned them security, I did not use my position to take care of those closest to me. What they clearly underestimated, however, is the fact that for the aforementioned categories - obviously unknown to them, I am ready to make a sacrifice - both human and political. But they must be ready for the same - in a functional sense, not in any other."
He announced that he would answer all questions from the Special State Prosecutor's Office and the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption:
"Because this battle has certainly only just begun, and there will be an opportunity for us to ask the aforementioned gentlemen a few questions. To begin with, at least one question - is it true that there is a Sky communication according to which, at one time, a High Court judge was given money for acquittals, and was he at least questioned about it," said Živković.
Bonus video:
