Lawyer leaves courtroom, fined 1.000 euros: Trial for Kruščić murder and Lakić wounding postponed again

The trial of the defendants for the murder of Miodrag Kruščić and the wounding of journalist Olivera Lakić was postponed again today at the Higher Court in Podgorica, after the defense attorney of the defendant Goran Rakočević, attorney Marko Milošević, requested a postponement of the hearing due to, as he stated, the scope of the case and the fact that he was not familiar with the files.

Milošević said that without insight into the case, he could not provide an adequate defense for his client.

The Trial Chamber rejected the proposal as unfounded, explaining that the accused "contributes to the delay of the proceedings through his own procedural circumstances."

The president of the panel of judges, Radovan Vlaović, stated that evidence not related to Rakočević was planned for today's hearing, and that the defense could subsequently state its position on that evidence.

After the court's decision, Milošević left the courtroom. He said he respected the panel's decision, but that he could not know whether the evidence related to Rakočević unless he was familiar with the contents of the case.

The court then ruled that the lawyer had left the courtroom without permission, for which he was fined 1.000 euros.

Judge Vlaović said that this was the 11th decision to punish defense attorneys in this case.

The hearing was then postponed again, and the trial is scheduled to continue on May 18th.

The indictment of the Special State Prosecutor's Office includes Milan Vujotic, Darko Lalovic, Filip Knezevic, Mario Milosevic, Goran Rakocevic, Veselin Bubanja, Filip Besovic, Luka Bulatovic, Dejan Vukasinovic, Branislav Karadzic, Goran Vukcevic, Mijajlo Stojanovic, Aleksandar Ljumovic and Sanja Bozovic.

The prosecution charges them with creating a criminal organization, aggravated murder, incitement to murder, grievous bodily harm, illegal possession of weapons and explosives, as well as unauthorized production, possession and distribution of narcotics.

The indictment includes the attack on Vijesti journalist Lakić on May 8, 2018, the murder of Kruščić on May 21 of the same year, as well as the smuggling of 554 kilograms of marijuana from Albania to Montenegro in January 2021.