Bogdanović: Those who made it a mafia outpost lost the right to talk about security

Democratic Montenegro MP Boris Bogdanović said that if anyone has lost the right to speak about the security sector, it is those who have been making it a mafia outpost for decades.

He spoke out after Strahinja Koprivica, the son of former high-ranking police official Duško Koprivica, was sentenced in the first instance to eight and a half years in prison for creating a criminal organization, smuggling, drug trafficking and illicit trade.

"The court found that he was the organizer of a criminal group, and he is also obliged to pay the state a total of 248.000 euros. This is what a family photo of the security system that the former regime created and protected for years looks like: a son convicted in the first instance as the organizer of a criminal group, a father accused of serving as a banker for the Kavač clan. If anyone has lost the right to speak about the security sector, then it is those who for decades made it a mafia outpost. During their rule, people who are now accused of the most serious crimes were appointed to the most responsible police positions. Among them is Duško Koprivica, once one of the highest police officials, against whom an indictment has been filed, charging, among other things, that he was the 'banker' of the Kavač criminal clan and that he hid and buried the money he earned through crime in the yard like potatoes," said Bogdanović.

That, he added, "was their personnel policy - not professionals, but people who the prosecution claims today were part of the criminal infrastructure."

"While citizens were told about the rule of law, today's accusations are about millions in criminal money, police officials and connections to organized crime. It is difficult to imagine a greater shame for a country than the fact that claims are being made today in court about a man who was at the top of the police force that he buried mafia money in his own backyard as if he were hiding sacks of potatoes. That is why those who created and defended that system have the least credibility today. Those who selected the personnel, promoted them and presented them as pillars of the state, and now they are washing their hands of those same people. The time of their control over the security sector will be remembered for the infiltration of organized crime into institutions. The time of this government will be remembered for the fact that these very people were prosecuted, accused and brought to justice," said Bogdanović.