The Special State Prosecutor's Office announced that the decision of the Higher Court in Podgorica to release defendants Ranko Ubović and Vlado Ivanović is unlawful.
They stated in a statement that the investigative judges of the Higher Court in Podgorica today, at 1:30 p.m. and 1:50 p.m., issued decisions Kris No. 170/25 and Kris No. 153/25, by which, at the proposal of the defense attorney, which was opposed by the Special State Prosecutor's Office, they terminated the detention of Ubović and Ivanović.
"And at the same time, they illegally determined that the defendants should be 'immediately released' and that 'an appeal does not stay the execution of the decision'," the SDT statement reads.
They explained that the release of the defendants is illegal, based on decisions that have not entered into legal force because they were delivered to the Special State Prosecutor's Office today, at 1:45 p.m. and 2:55 p.m., which, according to Art. 414, paragraph 1 and Art. 415 of the Criminal Procedure Code, has the right to appeal within three days.
"Namely, the fact is that Article 178 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, among other things, stipulates that during the investigation, the investigating judge may, at the proposal of the defendant and his defense attorney, and after requesting the opinion of the state prosecutor, terminate the defendant's detention by a decision. However, such a decision cannot be executed before it becomes final, nor can the defendant be immediately released pursuant to it, because, according to Article 416 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, it is stipulated that filing an appeal against a decision postpones the execution of the decision against which the appeal was filed, unless otherwise provided by the procedural code, and Article 178 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, which the investigating judges referred to in their decision, does not stipulate otherwise," the SDT statement reads.
With the amendments to the Criminal Procedure Code in 2015, the legislator amended the provision, which clearly specifies in Article 416 that "by filing an appeal against a decision, the execution of the decision against which the appeal was filed shall be postponed". The appeal against the decision of the High Court to release the defendant from custody was to be decided by the second-instance court, i.e. the Court of Appeal, which may by decision reject the appeal of the SDT as untimely or as inadmissible, reject it as unfounded, or accept the appeal and modify or revoke the decision...
The decision to terminate the detention of Ubović and Ivanović was made by investigative judges of the Higher Court in Podgorica, Suzana Mugoša and Goran Šćepanović, concluding that after the hearing of witnesses before the Special State Prosecutor's Office, "the grounds for detention ceased to exist."
The investigation in that case, in addition to Ubović and Ivanović, also included Veselin Kovačević, Aleksandar Mijajlović and former police official Zoran Lazović, as well as the companies Bemax and Master Inženjering.
"The investigating judges of the Higher Court in Podgorica, deciding upon the proposal of the defense counsels of the defendants VI and RU, issued decisions terminating the detention of the aforementioned defendants. The defendants VI and RU were previously ordered to be detained due to the risk of influencing witnesses. As the witnesses were heard before the SDT during the investigation, the investigating judges found that the grounds for detention ceased to exist," announced Ivana Vukmirović, independent public relations advisor of the Higher Court in Podgorica.
The owner of the company "Master Inženjering" Vlado Ivanović, on the orders of the SDT, was arrested on October 10th of this year on suspicion that he left five apartments in Podgorica's "Master Kvart", which were bought by the fugitive head of the Kavač clan Radoje Zvicer, registered to his company in order to conceal that they belonged to the fugitive from Kotor.
On the orders of the SDT, 17 days later, businessman Ranko Ubović and his business partner Veselin Kovačević were arrested.
The day after that, in the same case, detainees Zoran Lazović and Aleksandar Mijajlović, who were included in the investigation, were questioned at the SDT.
Special prosecutors suspect the five of committing multiple money laundering crimes - in the case of the apartments of the leader of the Kavač clan, Radoje Zvicer, in the Master Quarter, as well as the Bemaks apartments in the "Perla" building in Budva.
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