When all the events are considered - the puncture of a tire on an official vehicle of the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption (ASK), the shooting in a building and other situations - it is clear that we were exposed to constant threats, the former director of ASK said yesterday at the Higher Court in Podgorica. Jelena Perović.
She, together with her former assistant, Nina Paovic, is on trial under the indictment of the Special State Prosecutor's Office (SDT) for abuse of official position and forgery of official documents.
During the hearing, the Police Directorate's documentation regarding the damage to the tires on the official car that Perović used as director was reviewed. She stated that the documents submitted show that shots were fired at the ASK building and that the projectile hit the fifth floor of the glass building, and that the defense believes that the investigation in that case was neither thorough nor efficient.
"When these events are connected, it is clear that we were under constant threat," Perović told the court.
Perović has been advocating the thesis of compromised security ever since presenting her defense in September, when she claimed that she was the target of pressure and threats, and that certain moves that the prosecution is questioning stemmed from, as she stated, the need to protect herself and the work of ASK.
The court also reviewed the letters of the Special Police Department (SPO) with accompanying CDs from 2024. The decision of the Basic Court in Cetinje from 2022, which rejected the request, was also presented as evidence. Nikola Lekic for the erasure of convictions from criminal records. During Perović's term, Lekić was engaged in ASK on the basis of a service contract, and the indictment charges Perović and Paović with obtaining material benefit from him - by signing a service contract with him that was not registered and paying him net compensation, even though another service contract for the same work already existed.
During yesterday's hearing, the final verdict acquitting Lekić of charges for the criminal offense of fraud was reviewed, as well as the decision that Perović, then president of the panel of the Basic Court in Cetinje, made, rejecting his request for judicial rehabilitation.
Attorney for the indictment Maja Janković She stated that among the evidence submitted by the defense was a copy of the receipt for the discharge of debt for the Samsung A53 mobile phone. She pointed out that this document was not provided to the prosecution during the evidence gathering, which is why she proposed that the court ex officio request the original from ASK.
The trial in that case is scheduled to continue on March 6th.
The SDT indictment charges Perović, along with Paović, with the criminal offenses of abuse of official position and forgery of official documents. According to the prosecution, Perović illegally paid variable and overtime wages, fictitiously reported business trips, forged visa documentation, and paid telephone bills for family members and associates.
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