There is a part of the parliament that supports institutions, especially those that are a positive example of transparent and professional work, but there is also another that will contribute to stopping the security sector in this historic fight against organized crime.
This was stated today by the Minister of Internal Affairs Danilo Šaranović, responding to a repeated question from Vijesti - whether his assessments mean that part of the Security and Defense Committee is acting in a hybrid manner to destroy the security sector.
Previously, the session of that Committee was postponed because some MPs did not attend the scheduled control hearing of the heads of the security sector.
Last week, that parliamentary body voted to conduct a control hearing of Šaranović, Acting Director of the Police Administration Lazar Šćepanović, and Director of the National Security Agency Ivica Janović.
The hearing on the topic "Disinformation by the security sector regarding the incident in Zabjelo in which a Montenegrin citizen was wounded, on the basis of which the Government abolished the visa-free regime with Turkey" was requested by MPs from the Democratic Party of Socialists Danijel Živković and Nikola Janović, Civic Movement URA Dritan Abazović, Social Democrats Nikola Zirojević and independent MP Jevrosima Pejović.
Abazović and Pejović did not enter the state parliament building today, at a time when the session was supposed to be held in a "deaf room".
Šaranović pointed out that MPs have the right to choose their own political course of action, but that he expresses a clear revolt and protest from the Ministry of the Interior and the Police Directorate towards the malicious title of the session's topic.
"Which means that a part of the members of Parliament who support such initiatives, agree with them, are obviously providing, consciously or unconsciously, directly or indirectly, assistance to organized crime in an attempt to stop the security sector from fighting organized crime."
The Minister of Interior has repeatedly said, speaking about the events that followed the incident in Zabjelo, that it is evidence of "hybrid action".
"Malicious actions aimed at continuing attacks on the security sector through the instrumentalization of past social events, the ultimate goal of which is to disturb the public."
He said that there are various structures behind hybrid action:
"First of all, the police cartel and organized crime, I think that all this is evidenced by the latest cases processed by the Special State Prosecutor's Office, the Special Police Department and the UP Crime Fighting Sector."
He said that he and Šćepanović responded to the call for a control hearing primarily out of public interest, in order to "narrow the space for what is continuity in the socio-political life of Montenegro."
"And that is a constant subversive action with a focus on stopping the fight against organized crime in Montenegro."
"You can see that the intensity of activities in the fight against organized crime for months, not to mention the last two years, has its continuity and this is an attempt by organized crime, the police cartel, to divert the focus of the UP in the fight against organized crime," said Šaranović.
He said that the intensity of activities delivered by the security sector in the recent period clearly shows that they will not be stopped:
"And we will always have a strong response to that."
Šaranović said that his task is to protect the professional integrity of police officers, assessing that the title of the topic that was supposed to be discussed yesterday was "a malicious statement, incorrect, far from the truth and unfounded on facts."
The Minister of Internal Affairs recalled that Šćepanović and the Police Department had made official statements several times regarding the incident in Zabjelo, that they had clearly explained everything, but that despite this, certain parliamentary groups were saying that the police had made mistakes in their work:
"That the police deprived the freedom of persons who were not responsible through their omissions, and even that I, as Minister of Internal Affairs, may have almost caused bloodshed in Montenegro together with the Police. Imagine the lack of responsibility among certain political actors who do not choose the means to achieve certain political goals, possibly destabilizing the social environment... I responsibly claim that the response of the security sector to such attempts will always be much stronger," said Šaranović.
He added that they have repeatedly explained how foreign citizens who were arrested were determined not to be perpetrators of the crime....
"I warn once again that the security sector, through such comprehensive subversive action, which is carried out through the influence of organized crime on various social factors from the world of politics, media... is trying to thwart what is the absolute priority of the state of Montenegro at this moment - and that is to carry out the final fight against organized crime," said the Minister of Interior.
He recalled yesterday's action by the SDT and SPO, stating that one of the suspended police officers was among those arrested, and recalling that they were told at the time that he, Šćepanović, and the Deputy Prime Minister for Security were carrying out political vetting and revanchism.
"What is happening now is the police cartel's revenge against the security sector," he said.
"The results delivered by the ignorance sector are historic," he said, noting that in almost all operations at least one police officer is arrested.
"And these are predominantly police officers who have worked in the drug department for years... Who have worked in that department for years, who have been deprived of their liberty due to participation in criminal organizations that were involved in drug trafficking on a transnational level. The suspension of such police officers during our mandate - is it a political vetting or is it the establishment of the long-awaited rule of law in Montenegro," Šaranović concluded.
Explaining why the Committee session was not held, he said that "those members of the Committee did not show up, at least not in their entirety."
"Who made the decision to hold a session with this malicious topic, which does not correlate with the truth," he said.
Asked whether the Security Committee, headed by an MP from the ruling Europe Now Movement and in which the ruling majority has a majority, also operates in a hybrid manner, Šaranović said that each MP is independent in decision-making.
"He decides how and in what manner he will act in parliament," said Šaranović.
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