Mišnić: Krstović was carried out of the courtroom on a stretcher

Defendant Igor Krstović was taken out of the Higher Court in Podgorica on a hospital stretcher today after he fell ill during the trial.

This was announced to "Vijesti" by his legal representative, lawyer Nikolina Mišnić.

Krstović is on trial on charges by the Special State Prosecutor's Office that he formed a seven-member criminal organization responsible for causing general danger and the unauthorized production, possession and distribution of narcotics, three criminal offenses of money laundering and two criminal offenses of unauthorized possession of weapons and explosives...

"Igor has been in poor health for some time. We have informed the Protector of Human Rights and Freedoms, the Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, the EU Delegation to Montenegro, and the Protector of Patients' Rights about this. His health is very poor, the court is not reacting to it. He was also unwell this morning before the trial, when I visited the Remand Prison. Before they brought him to the courtroom, he received an injection that did not help him because he had probably become immune to so many medications. When they arrived in the courtroom, he became ill, and that was while the expert witness was having to declare whether he was procedurally competent to follow the course of the trial. The expert witness requested that an ambulance be called, which was done, and when they arrived, they were of the opinion that they had to take him to the Emergency Unit of the Clinical Center, where he is now," said Mišnić.

She added that her client was taken out of the courtroom on a stretcher.

Mišnić points out that today she was unable to receive information from the Patients' Rights Ombudsman about the surgery Krstović is awaiting, despite having previously received information...

"Today they told me that they cannot provide me with any information. I believe that his case is a violation of Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights and inhuman treatment. He is, in my opinion, the most health-threatening detainee at the moment, and he is being subjected to torture," she said.

Krstović was seriously wounded in Zeta in January 2020, and Vidoje Stanišić and Dragiša Bulatović, members of the Podgorica cell of the Kavački clan, are responsible for complicity in the attempted murder of that XNUMX-year-old.

Two years before he was wounded, the police officers temporarily confiscated from him two expensive cars - "BMW" and "mini Morris", 182.450 euros, a machete, sales contracts, encrypted phones...

The Police Administration announced at the time that Krstović was a security person of interest and that his house was searched in the continuation of the fight against organized criminal groups. In addition, they took away a metal box, two folding knives, pepper spray...

He was part of a group that harassed a famous Montenegrin athlete and the son of a top government official at the Budva discotheque "Trokadero" in late June 2017. The same group attacked the police after the incident, but no one was prosecuted, according to unofficial reports at the time.

A few days later, members of the special police entered the discotheque and searched the group that included Krstović and the now deceased Milić Minja Šaković... but they found none of the prohibited items.

ARREST

Krstović was arrested in Budva on March 26, 2024, in an operation by the Crime Suppression Sector, Budva police officers and with the support of the Special Police Department.

In the official announcement, they wrote that it was about "a high-ranking member of a criminal group that carried out criminal activities on the territory of Montenegro."

"Officers of the Anti-Criminal Sector, the Special Police Department and the Budva Security Department participated in the activities of the detention of IC. Officers of the Sector for the fight against crime continue intensive and determined activities with a primary focus on neutralizing the activities of organized criminal groups and persons associated with them", said the UP.

Montenegrin police have been searching for Krstović since late November 2023.

Saša Andušić and Boris Dobrović from Podgorica were deprived of their freedom in the action carried out at the time, suspected of the crimes of creating a criminal organization and money laundering.

According to police data, Krstović is close to the Skaljar cell of the Balkan drug cartel.