Parliament Speaker Andrija Mandić said that former Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sports Vesna Bratić, who was arrested this morning in an operation by the Special Police Department, was treated as a criminal.
At the end of today's extraordinary session of the Parliament, Mandić said that everyone wants the law to apply equally to everyone and that all citizens of Montenegro have access to law and justice.
"But today, the whole of Montenegro could see the attitude towards the former Minister of Education, University professor, Doctor of Science Vesna Bratić, who was treated like an ordinary criminal, by putting those handcuffs on her hands," Mandić said.
He expressed personal solidarity with Bratić.
"I want to encourage her to endure all the hardships she will go through, and one of them is that she is presented in this way, while a large number of members of different clans, usurers and people who have broken the law, and who belong to different branches of government, from the judiciary, the government, parliament, the prosecution and the police, are today smiling and thinking about the fate of a professor who waited for those photographs to mark her life," Mandić said.
He said that, along with his colleagues from the former Democratic Front, he was once handcuffed.
"My children, all family members and all of Montenegro watched it and I know how unpleasant this thing is," Mandić added.
He said that Montenegro is small and that everyone knows each other.
"If someone abuses power, and we will see what happens by the end of this process, the same thing will happen as happened to those who easily handcuffed others, then waited for them to be handcuffed as well," said Mandić.
He reiterated that Montenegro is a small country of about 600 thousand inhabitants.
"Let's be careful with each other," Mandić said.
He said that all of this could be resolved in much different ways "than those that are brutal and particularly disgusting towards a woman."
"You know, my nephew has been in pretrial detention for 11 months, I haven't said a word about it here, he's a man and let him endure it, but it's disgusting when you see a woman, a university professor, and such an attitude towards her," said Mandić.
Vesna Bratić was today ordered to be detained for up to 72 hours, after she was arrested this morning in an SDT investigation.
Officers from the Special Police Department (SPO) arrested her this morning in Podgorica. She was taken to the "Limenka" building, where the SPO headquarters are located, after 11 a.m. She left the building after questioning at around 13 p.m.
Bratić was arrested in a separate investigation by the SDT, which is unrelated to this morning's arrest of former Director of the Property Administration Blaž Šaranović.
Bonus video:
