Detention extended, no decision on bail: Spičanović's lawyer claims the system is ignoring the Constitutional Court

Attorney Miloš Vukčević, defense attorney for the accused former head of the counterintelligence service of the National Security Agency (ANB) Dear Spičanović, addressed the High and Appellate Courts, urging them to decide as soon as possible on their appeals for the termination of detention, as well as the request for bail that was filed at the end of April this year.

Vukčević, as he stated in his address to the court, believes that in the Spičanović case, "his basic human rights have been seriously and continuously violated for months."

"It is particularly worrying that regular courts persistently ignore not only the standards of the European Convention on Human Rights, but also the explicit Decision of the Constitutional Court of Montenegro U-III No. 95/26 of 21 April this year, in which the Constitutional Court clearly indicated that in relation to Drago Spičanović, there is no basis for detention under Article 175 paragraph 1 item 3 of the CPC - the risk of repetition of the offense - and that it must be assessed in accordance with constitutional standards and the practice of the European Court of Human Rights. However, despite such a decision, regular courts continue to extend detention on this basis, as if the decision of the Constitutional Court did not exist," Vukčević believes.

The Special State Prosecutor's Office has filed an indictment against a criminal organization, organized by a businessman Aleksandar Mijajlovic, and whose member, as they say, is Drago Spičanović, a former official of the Ministry of Interior, the Police Administration and the National Security Agency. The SDT believes that Mijajlović has been creating a network of informants from the heart of the security services, as well as the media system, for years in order to deal with dissenters from the political and security leadership and the church, through loyal journalists and media platforms, and also to influence the political and security situation in the country.

The SDT suspects that Mijajlović was directly assisted in this by the accused senior police and secret service official Drago Spičanović, former chief of the Podgorica police. Milovan Pavićević and a UP officer Vladan Lazović, as well as his cousin, the plaintiff Andrijana Nastić, giving him classified intelligence and data.

The organizer of the criminal group, as suspected by the SDT, received data from the UP system on a daily basis for years from the accused members, as well as data obtained through secret surveillance measures, the content of numerous intercepted conversations, and allegedly had access to intelligence data and recordings from the National Security Agency.

In April of this year, Spičanović's lawyer submitted a bail request to the Higher Court in Podgorica of over 900.000 euros, in order to have the former public and secret service official's detention lifted.

"At the same time, neither the submitted motion to terminate detention nor the motion to set bail and supervision measures, which was submitted on April 23, 2026, has been decided. Such conduct creates the impression that all legal defense remedies are being decided with significant delay," the lawyer states.

Vukčević emphasized that Spičanović has no previous convictions, which is why, in his opinion, there are no facts that would justify the conclusion that there is a risk of repeating criminal offenses.

"This is perhaps the only detained person who has been given a ground for detention: the risk of recidivism, without having been previously convicted, nor having any other criminal or misdemeanor proceedings against him."

"That is why it is particularly worrying that the most severe measure - deprivation of liberty - is still based on assumptions, and not on specific and individualized circumstances, which is directly contrary to the practice of the European Court of Human Rights and the legal position taken by the Constitutional Court of Montenegro," Spičanović's defense attorney pointed out.

On May 7th of this year, a hearing was held before the extra-judicial panel of the Higher Court in Podgorica to review the indictment filed by the SDT against Mijajlović, Spičanović, Lazović, Pavićević, prosecutor Nastic and a former DPS official. Predrag Bošković, due to reasonable suspicion that they committed the criminal offense of creating a criminal organization.

Spičanović's lawyer also finds it questionable that not even a month after the indictment review was held, a decision has been made on the appeal they filed against the previous decision to extend the detention.

"While the appeal remains pending, a new decision has been issued in the meantime to extend the detention. This completely negates the right to an effective legal remedy and the right of the detained person to receive a decision on the legality of their deprivation of liberty within a reasonable time."

"Of particular concern is the fact that even after more than a month since the indictment review, a decision has still not been made to confirm the indictment or suspend the proceedings, as requested by the defense," Vukčević believes.

The lawyer emphasized that the European Convention on Human Rights requires particular urgency in the courts' actions in detention cases, but that in his client's case, as he said, a state of legal uncertainty has persisted for months - without a timely decision on appeals, without a decision on bail, without a decision on the lifting of the grounds for detention that were challenged by the Constitutional Court.

“A logical question arises: what is the point of a decision of the Constitutional Court if regular courts do not respect it? What is the point of the right to appeal if it is not decided on in a timely manner? And what is the purpose of the European Convention if its standards are openly ignored?”