Chief Special Prosecutor Milivoje Katnić and MPs of the Democrats of Montenegro exchanged harsh accusations yesterday about political influence and abuses, and for this purpose the Special Prosecutor's Office removed the secrecy mark and published the transcript of the secret surveillance from 2017, which should compromise the party officials of Alekse Bečić - although it is not known why they were tapped four years ago.
All this is happening after the announcement of changes to the prosecutor's laws, which will end the mandate of the Special State Prosecutor's Office.
Katnić characterized it as discrimination by the prosecutor's office, which he heads, and offered to resign, stating that he will not apply for competitions in state bodies. But that Bečić and the President of the URA GP and the Deputy Prime Minister Dritan Abazović, as requested, make a written and public commitment that they will not change the laws during the mandate of this Assembly. Also, that they will not change the composition of the Prosecutor's Council or the Special Police Department and the Sector for Combating Organized Crime of the Police Administration.
Those two UP departments are headed by Dragan Radonjić and Zoran Lazović.
After the parties rejected these, as they stated blackmail, the two Democrat MPs Boris Bogdanović and Dragan Krapović were interrogated by the Special Police Team, and the Parliament received yesterday a request to remove Krapović's immunity for the acts for which he was arrested last year, after the so-called of the spring coup of the DPS in Budva.
Special prosecutor Živko Savović was also included in the whole story, about whose son Krapović and Bogdanović were asked in the Special Police Team, and who denied knowing him. After that, the SDT today released transcripts of secret surveillance measures from 2017 that mention Democratic officials, the special prosecutor and his son.
Savović previously filed a report against Katnić and nine other people for the "coup d'état" case, for which the verdict was handed down at the Court of Appeal.
Former deputy and member of the KOD organization Srđan Perić reminds that the violation of the law is determined by the court, based on a previously valid indictment.
"However, the timing in which the removal of the immunity of MP Krapović is requested possibly says more than the legal situation itself, because if the suspected offense is as it is described, that is, qualified - why did the SDT wait for the very moment when it is only included in the proposed legal acts which certainly mean changes in the Prosecutor's Office, on which the same deputy should vote. Let's add to all this that it is not to be expected that the representatives of the new government in the parliament will raise their hands for the requested removal of immunity", says the former deputy.
Related Articles
Miloš Konatar, the head of the parliamentary group of the coalition "Crno na bijelo", which is one of the initiators of the changes to the two laws on the prosecution, states that the events of the last two days remove even the minimum of dilemmas for those who had them:
"SDT and Katnić are politically trapped and because of him the entire institution is in the clutches of the former regime. If anyone had a dilemma about the changes in the Prosecutor's Office, I believe that there is no more, and that the political procedure that is conducted by the Prosecutor's Office must be reformed", said the deputy to "Vijesta".
Perić states that the resulting situation indicates, as he says, that in considering new legal solutions, we should additionally take into account all possible obstructions in order to prevent them in the future - whoever is in power personally and whoever is in the Prosecutor's Office.
"Unfortunately, all this shows that in Montenegro, the fight for political and any other positions is more important than what is the common good - which can only be achieved by strengthening institutions and subordinating the character of individuals in key positions to the interest of the community. From a narrow legal point of view, one can always argue that someone wants to bring the case to the final legal epilogue, but the answer to the question whether this is about persistence in law enforcement or about strengthening the negotiating position - solves many dilemmas. SDT has had consistency and indiscriminateness so far when to show - but it did not make a name for itself. The new government can now see for itself what it means to be slow in the transition of power and the essential exclusion of the professional public in the profiling of new solutions," said Perić.
In the meantime, a request to lift the immunity of DPS MP Petar Ivanović was also submitted to the Assembly, which part of the public interprets as a "maneuver" by the SDT to make the procedure of refusing to approve the prosecution of Krapović more difficult.
They also published lawyers' conversations as part of the "special war"
Although it is not the first time that the public has become familiar with the contents of conversations collected through secret surveillance measures, and under the direction of SDT, yesterday's act left several dilemmas. The public is not aware of exactly who was wiretapped and in which case, whether the investigation is still ongoing, and if not, why the collected material was not destroyed according to the legal procedure, since it is about conversations from 2017. "Vijesti" asked SDT all this, but the answer did not arrive.
"Yesterday's publication of the transcript of the conversation, which SDT collected through secret conversation measures, is not an isolated case - in the summer of 2017, several telephone conversations and communications of lawyer Goran Rodić and his colleagues and clients were published on the website of that institution, which SDT then claimed were led a 'special war, with which they wanted to hinder the investigation in the case of attempted terrorism'.
Then the SDT published the conversation of the secret group about the dismissal of the Supreme State Prosecutor Ivica Stanković, and on 19 pages the network of communication in several cases was presented, which included the defense attorneys of those accused of terrorism, as well as some leaders of the Democratic Front Andrija Mandić, Milan Knežević and Predrag Bulatović. In addition to the politicians, according to the transcripts of the conversation, the conversation of Veselin Mujović, who is accused of several frauds, was also published in the scheme.
"In order to objectively inform the public and especially to look at the forms and forms of the special war, which is ongoing against SDT, and especially to shed light on the forms and forms and propaganda activities within that plan, we present to the public part of the material obtained from mobile phones, which were used by the lawyer GR as well as other evidence, which was excluded by the order of the investigating judge of the High Court in Podgorica", it was written at the time in the introductory part of the document entitled "Special prosecution represents forms of special war", reminds the lawyer. Two days ago, Prosecutor Savović told Katnić, Jovićević and Radonjić that it happened in 1948, explaining why he filed criminal charges against Katnić and nine other people.
On the same day, the SDT summoned Krapović and Bogdanović to the hearing.
SDT claims that Krapović formed a criminal organization in Budva in early June with the aim of committing several crimes of abuse of official position and calling for resistance.
"From the evidence collected so far in the reconnaissance and the investigation conducted so far, as well as the defense of other defendants, it follows that Dragan Krapović, now a member of the Assembly,...in early June 2020, on the territory of the Municipality of Budva, organized a criminal organization whose goal is to commit crimes acts for which a prison sentence of four years or more can be imposed," the explanation of the request reads.
SDT adds that Krapović personally, or through intermediaries, recruited Aleksandar Mijatović, Igor Đurašević, Jasna Dokić, Nenad Bugarčić and Dragan Božović to become members of that criminal group.
The request states that they all accepted this and that they used the economic and business structures of the Budva municipality for criminal activities. Krapović is the former president of the Municipality of Budva.
SDT lashed out at his colleague for being politically educated
After ignoring Savović's name-calling, the SDT yesterday accused a colleague of passing on information to the people of Budva and of being politically instructed.
"The SDT has found itself in a situation where it is constantly attacked by individuals who are politically engaged and is exposed to pressure in order to make decisions regarding jurisdiction not in the prosecutor's office but in political parties, i.e. in order to, through the institutional framework, by passing the Law on the Prosecutor's Office for organized crime and corruption and the Law on the State Prosecutor's Office, achieved political influence that is inappropriate according to all accepted European standards", the announcement reads.
SDT claims that this influence was partly achieved: "Well, in order to clarify any doubts that the public might have, and in connection with the public address of several persons, including the special prosecutor Ž.S.,...we present part of the material obtained by the orders of the judge for the investigation of the High Court...on the implementation of secret surveillance measures against several persons due to the existence of grounds for suspicion that they have committed or are committing criminal acts, the creation of a criminal organization, abuse of official position, extortion, illegal possession of weapons and explosive materials", states the SDT. The website also published a transcript of the conversation between Bogdanović and Krapović, in which they can allegedly be heard agreeing to pay sponsorship to Savović's son.
"In itself, this conversation is more than clear, because BB, the current deputy.... quite clearly says that it would be good to pay the special prosecutor S., that is, his son M., that money in order to maintain relations with the special prosecutor because it gives a lot of information. The only reasonable conclusion is that the special prosecutor S. is giving information that he obtained through the performance of his official duty, which he must not do, because it is prohibited by law. It is clear from this conversation that the current MPs B. and K. are agreeing to cover up the giving of money through sponsorship or donation, and not to give it out of pocket, that is, that half of the requested money has already been provided. "It is very clear that these two current members of parliament are trying to exert political influence on the special prosecutor, so they are ready to strengthen that influence by giving money to the special prosecutor," the announcement reads.
They also published the transcript of the conversation between Krapović and Aleksa Bečić, with the explanation that the conversation is also very clear, "and it is obviously about agreeing that a large area of land, owned by the Municipality of Budva, without legal procedures, public announcements, tenders, be handed over to another person and in accordance with the agreements that would be concluded in private".
From everything SDT concludes that their colleague Ž. S. transmitted information "that is of importance to certain persons".
Krapović: The Prosecutor's Office is acting as a political club for the DPS
Democrat MP Dragan Krapović said that it is "indicative and illustrative" that the SDT sent a request to the Assembly for the removal of immunity when the reform laws on the prosecution are in the process and that the talks were taken out of context.
"Then in June, my lawyers submitted a notification about every action taken, presentation of evidence, hearings, and so on by the SDT. From then until today, not a single action has been taken," Krapović said.
He said that he could not remember the details of the conversation, if any, from four years ago.
Answering the question whether it is true that he still knows who the son of SDT Živko Savović is, he pointed out that he does not know the prosecutor. "Those are the transcripts, I don't know now if they are correct, I can't remember, but today's explanation by the SDT is certainly scandalous for the reason that secret surveillance measures are used to detect and prove criminal acts, not as they explained today objective information to the public", Krapović said.
He pointed out that as far as the investment mentioned in the transcript of the conversation dated September 22, 09 between him and Aleksa Bečić was concerned, it was only informative and everything was in accordance with the law. He also said that SDT should have reacted in 2017 if he had doubts: "Now it is clear that it is spin. It is clear, this is political pressure, the prosecution is acting as a political club for DPS. That pressure exists, they claim that we want to exert political pressure, that is not true," Krapović said.
Radulović: Admitted that they illegally eavesdropped on political dissenters
The MP of the Movement for Change, Branko Radulović, said that yesterday's "activities" of the famous Katnić and the imprisoned special prosecutor's office against Democratic officials only confirm what kind of system the previous regime created and how strong the arms of the criminal octopus still are and how necessary a comprehensive and urgent reform of the police-prosecutor- of the judicial apparatus. "With this, they publicly admitted that they illegally eavesdropped on political dissidents and anyone they wanted. Do we need to be reminded of all the calvary and political persecution of us from DF, from the staged 'coup d'état', through the alleged 'money laundering', to the imprisonment of our leaders, without removing their immunity, the arrest of the entire parliamentary club and our families and numerous members and sympathizers? Do we need to remind about the series of criminal charges with solid evidence that we filed against the top of the regime and their criminal associates, and none of them received a judicial epilogue?" asked Radulović.
He added that everything indicates that both Ivica Stanković and Katnić should be dismissed immediately and that, through changes in the legal regulations, professionals and courageous people should be brought in who, together with the reorganized and polished police, would start an energetic fight against endemic corruption and organized crime.
See more:
Download the app and follow the news
FOLLOW US ON
