Towards the end of the year, the Court of Appeal will again decide on the "coup d'état" which, according to the claims of the former Special State Prosecutor's Office (SDT), was prevented on the day of the parliamentary elections on October 16, 2016.
The hearing is scheduled for December 23, 24, 25 and 26, before a panel of judges. Vesne Mostrokol, "Vijesti" learns.
According to the same information, the panel in which the rapporteur is a judge Zorica Milanović, in those several hearings, they will make a decision on whether to open a hearing before the Court of Appeal, or whether the matter in question has been sufficiently clarified.
Three verdicts have been issued in this case so far - the Higher Court in Podgorica initially sentenced all the defendants to prison sentences, but the Court of Appeal overturned that verdict and ordered a new trial. In the retrial, the Higher Court acquitted all the defendants, but the SDT appealed that verdict. The decision is now back on the table of the Appellate Court panel. If they assess that everything has been clarified in this case, the panel can confirm the acquittal, and otherwise they could open a new trial and their decision would be final.
Convicted then acquitted
The case, which has been called the "trial of the century" from the beginning, has been going on for more than eight years and has so far had three verdicts - the first one convicting, the second overturned, and the third acquitting.
From the beginning of September 2017 until May 9, 2019, when the first, later overturned, verdict was pronounced, the proceedings were followed by live television broadcast.
With the first verdict, all suspects, including the leaders of the coalition "For the Future of Montenegro", Andrija Mandic i Milan Knezevic, were sentenced to a total of 70 years in prison.
The Court of Appeal overturned the conviction at the time and "planned" to issue an acquittal in a retrial.
In a repeated trial in the Podgorica Higher Court, on July 12, 2024, the first-instance verdict acquitted all defendants of the criminal offense of attempted terrorism, namely that on October 16, 2016, they intended to use violence and armed force to storm the Parliament of Montenegro and declare the victory of the then Democratic Front.
President of the special council, judge Zoran Radovic he said at the time that the allegations in the indictment that the Russians were Eduard Shishmakov i Vladimir Popov created a criminal organization, that is, of all their weapons, only two "Lenovo" mobile phones were brought into Montenegro.
With a new verdict from July last year, Mandić and Knežević were acquitted of charges of membership in a criminal organization.
Former commander of the Serbian Gendarmerie Bratislav Dikić was acquitted of the criminal offenses of attempted terrorism by aiding and abetting and creating a criminal organization, as well as Predrag Bogićević, Nemanja Ristic, Branka Milić, Dragan Maksic, Srboljub Đorđević, Milan Dušić i Mihailo Čađenović.
No weapons, no organization
Judge Radović then gave a brief explanation of the first-instance, acquittal verdict in the courtroom:
"In order for someone to be found guilty of a criminal offense, there must be certainty regarding the facts that constitute the elements of the criminal offense and which facts are an element of the essence of the criminal offense specified in the operative part of the indictment. There is no such certainty in this case, and the court has issued a verdict that the accused are acquitted of the charges because it has not been proven that they committed the criminal offenses for which they are charged by the Special Prosecutor's Office. The path for this court to establish a fair and complete factual situation was facilitated by the decision of the Court of Appeals, which overturned the first verdict and contains precise instructions on how to proceed in the retrial," said Judge Radović.
He then addressed an almost key issue, which was the weapons, which never entered Montenegro, but were located in a rented house of a police officer at the Old Airport, which was filmed by one of the first defendants. Mirko Velimirović after entering Montenegro on October 12, 2016 and after going to the office of the then Chief Special Prosecutor Milivoj Katnić.
"That recording was reviewed in the courtroom, and the court, prosecutors, defendants and their defense, and the public, were able to see grotesque scenes when Mirko Velimirović enters that room and tries to record that weapon taken from the police in a clumsy way. From the sidelines, the voices of members of the Special Police Department could be heard, suggesting to the confused man what to do. According to the findings of this court, it has not been proven that Mirko Velimirović is from a certain person Fadilj "He bought a weapon on Mokra Gora and, according to Katnić's previous instructions, he disassembled it and threw it into Lake Gazivode. He could not describe where the lake was, nor did he know how he carried out the act. Mokra Gora is a huge mountain with a huge area, so it is incredible for the court that Velimirović found Fadilja there without any prior agreement with someone and without telephone communication. It is like looking for a needle in a haystack," Radović said in the courtroom that day.
Sinđelić's "learned statement"
He also spoke in detail about the departure of the cooperating witnesses. Saša Sinđelić in Moscow, on September 27, 2016, stating that the witness provided a detailed description with a series of minute details that are characteristic of learned testimony, whereby when asked by the defense, he was unable to describe the SDT building.
The judge said that the equipment that, according to the indictment, was supposed to be used to enter the Parliament of Montenegro and other institutions, and which Saša Sinđelić handed over to the Serbian Ministry of Internal Affairs on October 25, 2016, was not transferred to Montenegro either.
"In the recording of the surrender, Sinđelić can be heard saying that this is equipment that he normally sells at the flea market and it is indisputable that he is involved in this. Therefore, neither the equipment nor the weapons were brought into Montenegro, and the weapons that were filmed in the rented house at the Old Airport were used by the investigating judge, at the request of the competent Special Prosecutor's Office, to issue an order for the implementation of secret surveillance measures. The evidence presented further established that members of the Special Unit, which according to the indictment was supposed to take over the weapons in Montenegro, shot at members of the Montenegrin police and entered and occupied the building of the Parliament of Montenegro and other institutions, arrested the Prime Minister of Montenegro Milo Đukanović, declare the victory of the opposition, in which the accused Mandić and Knežević would have played an active role, were actually in the Zlatibor and Čajetina region the day before and on the day of the parliamentary elections, and it has not been proven that the act of committing an attempted terrorism on the territory of Montenegro had begun. In order for this to be an attempted criminal offense, and there is a completed and incomplete attempt, the act of committing the act should have begun, and the consequence should be absent after the act of committing the act or for some reason the act of committing the act is not completed. All these acts listed in the indictment are preparatory acts for terrorism, so it has not been proven that the act of committing the act began because of all that great weapons and equipment, the only thing that was brought into Montenegro were two 'Lenovo' phones," Radović explained at the time.
He said that it had not been proven that Popov was the organizer of the criminal organization, and that, according to the indictment, Dikić had a plan to act on the orders of the organizers of the criminal organization, but that he never had any contact with them, of any kind...
"From the testimonies of Sinđelić and Velimirović, it is established that Dikić did not know about any weapons nor did he have any communication with any member of this criminal organization, as presented in the indictment, nor with those people who came to Montenegro from Serbia," the judge said that day, explaining the verdict.
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