On January 19, the Police Directorate received an order from the Basic Court in Podgorica for the forcible detention of Lidija Mitrović, and from that day until February 2, police officers searched for the convicted former special prosecutor at known addresses in order to send her to serve her seven-month prison sentence.
This follows from the response of the President of the Basic Court in Podgorica, Željka Jovović, from whom "Vijesti" requested additional clarifications regarding how cooperation and communication between the Court and the Police Directorate took place in the handling of this IKS case (execution of criminal sanctions).
Judge Jovović thus confirmed the Police Directorate's statements from the statement, in which they stated that, acting on the order of the Basic Court in Podgorica to forcibly bring in the convicted Lidija Mitrović, who did not voluntarily report to serve her prison sentence, they visited her residence and residence on several occasions in the territory of Podgorica and Budva.
The Mitrović family, as stated by the UP, provided conflicting information to the police regarding the former prosecutor's whereabouts, and then the police officers informed the court of all the facts, based on which an arrest warrant was issued for the former SDT prosecutor from the time when that institution was headed by Milivoje Katnić.
Jovović reiterated that the Basic Court issued an order for forcible arrest on January 14, which the Police Directorate, after carrying out the necessary administrative procedures, received five days later.
"The time elapsed from the date of receipt of the order to the date of drafting the notification, January 30, 2026, is the time during which the Police Directorate, as follows from the notification, visited the convicted person on several occasions, at the given address, which represents a reasonable time to take action pursuant to the court order and then provide a final notification as to whether the person has been found or whether it can be concluded that he is evading the police," the response of the President of the Basic Court in Podgorica states.
She emphasized that in regular proceedings, the 11-day period does not require the need to address the court - the police about the actions taken pursuant to the order, as she explained, because the Police Department needs to take multiple actions and search for the convicted person on multiple occasions, in order to provide the court with a final and valid notification, which is considered to be the fulfillment of the conditions for ordering a warrant.
"This, bearing in mind the legal provision regulating the issue of conditions for issuing a warrant, made it necessary and essential for the police to take the necessary actions in advance and within a reasonable time frame regarding the court's order," said Judge Jovović.
The President of the Basic Court in Podgorica also emphasized that the court "had no problems with the Police Directorate regarding the conduct of this IKS case."
"Also, the cooperation between this court and the police is at a good level, as I have publicly announced on several occasions, and that so far no problems have been observed in the proceedings that could not be overcome in accordance with the law. For the sake of more efficient proceedings and better cooperation, meetings between representatives of the court and the police are continuously held. I would especially like to refer to the meeting with the Director of Police Lazar Šćepanović in the premises of the Basic Court, where the discussion was precisely about improving cooperation on the issues that are now the subject of your interest," she concluded.
On May 29th of last year, the Court of Appeals upheld the verdict of the Higher Court in Podgorica, which sentenced Lidija Mitrović to seven months in prison for the continued criminal offense of abuse of official position, in a repeated court proceeding.
Mitrović was sentenced to this prison sentence on December 23, 2024, at the Higher Court in Podgorica.
Her career at the SDT was mostly marked by the "Klap" and "Vardar" cases, in which dozens of people, owners and managers of several companies, were arrested in 2019 and 2020 for multi-million-dollar tax and contribution evasion and the creation of criminal organizations.
Mitrović concluded plea agreements with most of the defendants in the "Klap" case, as a result of which the defendants were sentenced to suspended prison terms and symbolic fines.
The indictment against Mitrović was represented by prosecutor Miloš Šoškić, claiming that she abused her official position in the "Klap" case by dismissing criminal charges against four individuals and one legal entity by applying the institute of "deferred prosecution", after those individuals had paid the outstanding taxes to the state.
During the proceedings, she claimed that the reports she dismissed in the "Klap" case did not contain elements of a criminal offense, while the High and Appellate Courts concluded that, as an official, she unlawfully used her position and applied the postponement of criminal prosecution even though she knew that this institute could not be used for tax evasion.
After the verdict became final, Mitrović filed several appeals, requesting a postponement of her prison sentence.
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