About twenty days before the enthronement of the Metropolitan Joanikia in Cetinje in September 2021, former official of the Police Administration and employee of the National Security Agency (ANB) Drago Spicanovic allegedly to a businessman Aleksandar Mijajlović transmitted secret information from the parliamentary "dead room" about the assessment of a high-risk event and sent him secret information from the ANB - "that this must not take place in Cetinje because there is a real danger of conflict breaking out."
This, among other things, is stated in the order of the Special State Prosecutor's Office (SDT), which suspects Spičanović of creating a criminal organization, abuse of official position and disclosure of secret information.
Spičanović, as explained, transmitted secret information that was an integral part of ANB Information No. 09-23J/2J-3644-3047 dated August 19, 2021, marked "Secret".
He learned the information in an unknown way.
"Listen to this. On Thursday... the ANB will send an official message to the Government... that the security assessment... that this cannot be held at CT... Because there is a real danger of a conflict breaking out... on a larger scale... They receive information every day... All these heads of centers and sectors are sending Vukšić (Dejan, former head of the ANB) on Wednesday these assessments, and he must submit them to the Government the next day ... This is 1/1...” are the messages that the SDT wrote in the order, which Spičanović, as they claim, sent to Mijajlović on September 17, 2021.
Three days later, Spičanović, according to the documents, told Mijajlović: "Vukšić signed that... That the assessment was that it was unsafe to have a CT scan."
Spičanović and Mijajlović are in custody in Skopje after they were handcuffed in an operation by the SDT and the Special Police Department. In addition to the two, a former police official was also arrested. Milovan Pavićević, a police officer Vladan Lazović and senior state prosecutor Andrijana Nastić, Mijajlović's cousin. After them, the former Minister of Defense, a DPS official, was also arrested. Predrag Boskovic.
Prosecutors charge them with creating a criminal organization, abuse of official position, disclosure of secret information, and, among other things, influencing the exercise of citizens' voting rights by deciding on the duration of employment in companies linked to the criminal organization...
All denied the charges, and after being questioned by the investigating judge, Mijajlović and Spičanović were sent behind bars, Pavićević and Lazović were placed under house arrest, and prosecutor Nastic was ordered to report to the police occasionally and was suspended by decision of the Prosecutorial Council. After being questioned by the investigating judge, Bošković was released to defend himself at liberty, with the requirement that he report to the police...
He also recounted the internal control report.
The SDT also states that Spičanović also sent parts of a report prepared by the Internal Control of the Ministry of the Interior, regarding the use of force by police officers during the protest on September 5, 2021, during the enthronement in Cetinje. A month after the risky enthronement in the Cetinje Monastery, when the police used both force and coercion, Spičanović informed the alleged organizer of the criminal group about the information obtained from the Internal Control of the Ministry of the Interior.
"Now they're reporting to me from the interior... They were doing a report around Cetinje... 135 missiles fired, 95 cartridges... 40 hand grenades... One outlaw from the PJP," and to these messages, as the SDT states in the order, Mijajlović responds: "Uhaaaa."
Then Spičanović sends him a message saying that he will find out more details: "I will find out who ... did the most ... He shot that one in the street when it was all over ... But don't talk."
When asked whether Internal Control will prosecute the police officers, Spičanović replies: "I will remember them well... Here I am pushing them... as much as I can... if you will believe it... I am helping them and how to do it."
The SDT states that the letter from the SPO, to which the MUP report was submitted, indicates that it was written at the request of the ODT in Cetinje, in order to collect evidence in a criminal case, which was formed after an article on the "CDM" portal titled: "Clashes between police and citizens - large amounts of tear gas thrown, Joanikije enthroned, Veljović detained."
It also states that the conclusion of the report stated, based on the established facts, the number of means of coercion used in Cetinje on September 5, 2021.
"A total of 202 means of coercion were used - 151 chemical bullets - tear gas cartridges fired from chemical rifles and pistols, 25 hand-held chemical bombs, 18 chemical bombs or chemical bullets, 4 shock bombs and 4 irritant sprays," the Ministry of Interior report states.
Although the figures sent by Spičanović do not match those from the Internal Control report, the SDT states that it is precisely from these data that the conclusion follows that Spičanović gave Mijajlović "data from this report related to the use of force in Cetinje, which he obtained through police officers close to him, who are currently unidentified, employed by the Ministry of Internal Affairs."
In early 2014, Spičanovič, as an ANB officer in Bar, was appointed Head of the Internal Control Department of the Ministry of Interior, where he headed until 2019, when he was promoted to the position of Assistant Director of the Police Directorate, after Veselin Veljović took a leading position in the public service for the second time...
Along with Veljović's other assistants, Spičanović was dismissed on March 1, 2021, and with the arrival of Sava Kentere At the head of the ANB, in early May 2022, he arrived at the secret service, where he was appointed as the second man - the head of the Counterintelligence Protection Department...
He sent secrets from the "deaf room"
The SDT order states that the accused Spičanović also passed on to the organizer of the criminal group, Aleksandar Mijajlović, information obtained from the "dead room" from the session of the secret part of the parliamentary Committee for Security and Defense. According to them, he informed the then Deputy Prime Minister about Dritan Abazovic was a topic, because he visited in prison Ljub Bigović, one of those convicted of murdering a police inspector Slavoljub Šćekić at the end of August 2005.
According to SDT, he sent messages via WhatsApp on October 25, 2021: "They killed Dritan at the parliamentary committee in the 'dead room' about the visit to Bigović... They asked him for a note... which of course he doesn't have."
The SDT also cites other material evidence, writing that it follows from the statement of the Committee for Security and Defense No. 00-63-4/21-70/2 of October 25, 2021, that the Committee submitted a report from the 19th session on the control hearing of Abazović, the then Acting Supreme State Prosecutor. Drazen Burić, bivšeg GST-a Milivoj Katnić, former ANB director Dejan Vukšić and head of SPO Dragan Radonjić.
Bečić's mother and Milomir Marić
The SDT suspects that from June 30, 2020 to October 1 of that year, Spičanović, as a high-ranking public official of the Police Department - Assistant Director of Police, sent personal data and identification numbers of persons he had taken from the MUP system, in response to several inquiries from Mijajlović, via messages, in which the businessman was interested.
The order states that on August 19, 2020, via the WhatsApp application, Mijajlović asked Spičanović to check the personal information of the mother of the then MP. Alekse Bečić, in order to check whether she is the owner of the property in Bečići.
Spičanović, they claim, gave him her name, age, and then her ID number in the message.
By the SDT order, Spičanović is also charged with proposing, on August 18, 2020, to check through the Ministry of Interior system whether and through which border crossing a person named Milomir Maric.
"Come on," Mijajlović replies.
After that, as written in the prosecution's files, Spičanović sent a message stating that this person had entered two days earlier through the Dobrakovo border crossing, with Vesna Radusinović.
"Did she sign for the church?"
By searching the MUP system, the police official, according to the SDT, also sent data about the woman, in order to see where she was born because she was "their scholarship recipient and whether she signed for the church", and if so, "to escort her...".
From the protected MUP application, Spičanović allegedly sent data on numerous car owners, whose registrations Mijajlović asked him about. According to the SDT order, he did this from March 9, 2021 to November 13, 2021.
The SDT suspects that Spičanović, at Mijajlović's invitation, also incited UP officers to commit a criminal offense:
“Mijajlović, with intent, repeatedly incited the defendant Drago Spičanović to incite officials in the Police Directorate to commit the criminal offense of abuse of official position under Article 416, paragraph 1 of the Criminal Code of Montenegro, thereby creating a decision in the defendant Drago Spičanović to take the requested actions, and to that end, acting with intent, Spićanović, within the specified period of time, on several occasions, created a decision in the officials of the Police Directorate to obtain and submit information to him.”
The SDT also states that Spičanović, as the head of the VI Sector of the ANB and a senior inspector in the Bar subcenter, sent the requested data from August 18, 2022 to January 21, 2023, in Podgorica and Bar, even though as a civil servant he knew that, in order to pursue private interests or the interests of others, he was not allowed to use state property and the data at his disposal in the performance of his duties.
During that period, the defendant Spičanović sent information on the names or owners of cars on several occasions, which Mijajlović was interested in.
"And thus, the organizer of the criminal organization, the defendant Mijajlović, provided the information that the Police Department has or that was obtained in the performance of his duties and police work, which, as an unauthorized person, he was not allowed to obtain," the SDT states.
Hunting on Dritana after the DPS fall
In the order to conduct the investigation, the SDT prosecutors' team also deals with a series of messages from September 20, 2020, exchanged between the accused businessman Aleksandar Mijajlović and the accused police and ANB official Drago Spičanović.
At that time, he was the assistant director of the UP during the Veselin Veljović era.
Judging by the messages, in the hours-long hunt for GP URA President Dritan Abazović, who was a key political figure and a weight in the balance after the parliamentary elections on August 30, 2020, Spičanović reports to Mijajlović and explains what the police team in Nikšić did at his request.
"Look who has whom in NK because Abazović is with Joaniki now... See if Tiha has anyone to record him," Mijajlović sends messages to Spičanović, who replies: "I will right away."
Then, as the files say, Spičanović sent several messages: "Joanikija's car is in front of the temple... And this guy is driving a Passat 7... he sent a couple of teams, if they can document it, they are all in civilian clothes with the means."
In response to this information, Mijajlović sends clarifications: "They picked him up at the entrance to the NK by a trade wind", and in the continuation of the communication, Spičanović sends a message: "They are in the process, so let's see what they can do."
Spičanović also wrote messages: "Tiho is not responding, I'll call him now... They can't locate the passat... they're looking for him everywhere they know Daka and this guy are going," and then the defendant Mijajlović sent: "They're at the parish home...".
Spičanović adds: "They've been close there for a long time with a camera," and then adds: "Whatever, Tiho is there with the operation group... Now there's no one in front of the Parish Church...".
Judging by the messages written in the order, Mijajlović did not give up on the chase, so he wrote to Spičanović: "Then let them look somewhere else to make sure they haven't lost their trail," to which the accused police official replied: "Now... they'll be looking, his operational groups are all over the city."
In a series of messages from that day, Mijajlović and Spičanović also comment on whether Abazović has an escort, to which the assistant director of the UP stated: "He doesn't take them everywhere... Someone should teach him... Because through them, they would know where...".
In addition to commenting on the UP and ANB systems, Mijajlović again, as stated in the files, sends information to the accused Spičanović: "They are in Parohijski, but they have removed the cars", and the latter replies that "the UP operational group from Nikšić is there... Tiho was there too... I'll tell him now".
After receiving this information, Mijajlović wrote to him: "There is something compromising about Abazović and that's why they dragged him in to show him."
Spičanović, the order states, then sends a message with the following content: "The operation group is at Parohjski's. If they come out, they will have to see them and the lights are off," and Mijajlović replies: "Ok, ok."
Bonus video:
