What was Djukanovic secretly doing in Geneva?

Around two o'clock in the afternoon on Wednesday, March 6, 2019, a small business jet took off from an airport near Brussels.

It included a multi-member delegation of the Montenegrin president, which had arrived in the center of the European Union from Podgorica the previous evening.

That morning in Brussels, Milo Đukanović met with EU and NATO leaders, Donald Tusk and Jens Stoltenberg, and then had lunch with officials of the European Jewish Association, after they presented him with the "King David" award in recognition of "his outstanding contribution to the support and protection of Jews." ".

About forty minutes later, instead of flying straight home to Montenegro, "lear-jet 45" landed in Switzerland, the land of watches, chocolate and cheese, top health services and semi-secret banking, at one of the airports near Geneva.

Until recently, the only circumstance known to the public that connects Đukanović with this place was that his longtime friend Stanko Cane Subotić also lives there.

The plane stayed on the runway for about three and a half hours, and then continued to Podgorica.

What the delegation led by Đukanović was doing that day in Geneva, "Vijesti" could not find out from the authorities, who for two years and five months would not answer questions about it, nor disclose the documentation about this flight.

The General Secretariat of the two Governments and the offices of Đukanović and former Prime Minister Duško Marković did not even explain who was on the state plane and why the "Lear-Jet 45" landed in the region around Lake Geneva 14 more times from June 2016 to March 2020 - of which with Đukanović on at least two occasions. These government representatives did not answer questions, nor did they approve requests for free access to information, and they even ignored court rulings that required them to do so.

Three months after the stopover in Geneva from Brussels, Đukanović traveled there again on the Government plane, which landed early in the morning on June 6, stayed on the tarmac for a little over six hours and continued to Bratislava.

The President and his chief political advisor Milan Roćen had dinner that day in the capital of Slovakia with the then Vice-Prime Minister Miroslav Lajčak, on the eve of the Globsec security conference.

The next day, Đukanović spoke at a panel discussion on the dialogue between Serbia and Kosovo with Presidents Hashim Thaci and Aleksandar Vučić.

On June 6, Vučić's plane also landed and spent some time at the airport in Geneva on the way from Belgrade to Bratislava, but not at the same time as the plane of the Government of Montenegro was there.

Đukanović and Roćen also met in Bratislava with the then high-ranking official of the State Department, Philip Riker, before the plane left for Montenegro, shortly after 15:XNUMX p.m.

For reasons unknown to the public, the president traveled to Geneva on January 22, 2019, landed at around 7:52 a.m. and flew to Podgorica at around 16:38 p.m.

Apart from the flight history of the Government plane, which was given to "Vijesta" by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), it can also be seen from the order for the use of the aircraft number 04/19 of January 13, 2019.

That paper, which was signed by the former general secretary of the government, Nataša Pešić, and now the advisor for cooperation with state bodies in Đukanović's cabinet, is the only document on the use of the state plane that "Vijesti" has received from the Montenegrin authorities since the beginning of the legal battle for free access to information in from May 2019 until today, despite the judgments of the Administrative Court, which annulled two decisions of the General Court on the rejection of the request for the submission of flight data.

The government regulation stipulates that the presidents of the state, the parliament and the government, who are also protected persons, can use the plane for official trips for free, while other high-ranking state officials and bodies must pay all the costs of using the plane from their own budgets, if they are approved for use of the plane.

In 2016, there were five unexplained landings in the area around Lake Geneva from June to the end of the year, one in 2017, three in 2018, four in 2019 – including three flights with Djukanovic on board. Until March 2020, when "Vijesti" has the data, two more unexplained flights from Podgorica to this region were recorded, with both the passengers and the reason for the trip hidden.

From the end of November 2016 to the beginning of June 2018, there is only one unexplained flight of a state plane - in April 2017. Đukanović's position as prime minister ended on November 28, 2016, and he took the presidential oath on May 20, 2018.

Some flights were made at a time when important things were happening in Montenegro, but "Vijesti" does not have any data that would link them to each other.

The day after the flight to Geneva on October 24, 2016, a session of the Presidency of the Democratic Party of Socialists was held, from which it was announced that Đukanović would not be a candidate for prime minister, after the parliamentary elections that month.

The day after the election of Marković's government, on November 29, 2016, while she was sitting in Podgorica, the state plane landed in Geneva and stayed there for about eight hours.

In the midst of the "Envelope" affair, a day after he answered questions from journalists about it for the first time, Đukanović spent eight hours in Geneva on January 22, 2019, where he arrived on a government plane.

The state plane stayed in Geneva for at least a little over an hour in three cases, and a maximum of thirteen and a half hours at 21/22. November 2018. In some cases, before or after landing or taking off from Geneva, the plane landed at airports in Italy and France.

"Vijesti" could not find official information or media reports about any activity of the three presidents or other high state officials in Switzerland on the days when these 15 flights took place, as well as on the days immediately before and after the dates of those flights.

In the period from June 2016 to March 2020, there were several more flights by the Government plane to Geneva, but high-ranking government officials officially informed the public about their official activities in that city.

Đukanović's office did not respond to "Vijesti" questions from June 2020 about what he did in Geneva on March 6 and June 6, 2019, as well as whether he was a passenger on the plane during the other 13 flights. week repeated questions about those flights and to an additional question about his stay in Geneva on January 22, 2019.

"Vijesti" asked his cabinet whether the purpose of his trips was official or private for each individual flight, and if he traveled privately, who paid for the flight expenses, but they did not receive an answer.

From the cabinet of the former President of Montenegro Filip Vujanović, who held that position until May 20, 2018, to similar questions about his possible flights to Geneva, the answer was that for all his official trips "in the capacity of the President and former President of Montenegro Gore", technical support in the organization of official trips was exclusively provided by the General Secretariat of the President of Montenegro, "which during the performance of the duties of the President of Montenegro included, among other things, the engagement and use of the aircraft of the Government of Montenegro".

"Please send the above questions to the address of the General Secretariat of the President," reads the reply from Vujanović's office. The general secretary of the president, Slavoljub Stijepović, did not answer the questions sent to Vijesta.

"The President of the Parliament of Montenegro, Ivan Brajović, has been regularly informing the public about his activities in the country and abroad since the beginning of his mandate in November 2016, with information that is constantly available. Therefore, the media can easily determine that there was no activity on the requested dates and place. Through a check in the service of the Parliament of Montenegro, it was determined that the same applies to the previous president Darko Pajović," states the response of the cabinet of the then head of parliament Brajović to questions from June 2020 about his and Pajović's possible trips to Geneva on the state "lir-jet 45 ".

Brajović succeeded Pajović as President of the Assembly on November 24, 2016.

On the additional request to clearly state whether Brajović and Pajović traveled to Geneva on the days of the indicated flights on the Government plane, the answer from Brajović's cabinet did not arrive.

The cabinet of then Prime Minister Duško Marković did not answer questions about his possible flights on the Government plane in that capacity and during the time when he was Deputy Prime Minister until November 2016.

Đukanović traveled to London with a journalist from "Vijesti"

Another secret Đukanović's connection with Switzerland was recently revealed by MANS as part of the international journalistic investigation Pandora's Papers on the offshore affairs of state officials, rich people, criminals and public figures.

MANS established that the company that managed the trusts that Đukanović and his son Blažo formed in 2012 - and hid that ownership across five states - operated at an address in the Swiss town of Nuchatel. It is located about a hundred kilometers from Geneva, and near several small airports around Lake Geneva. Since 2017, the company LJ Management (Suisse), where the documentation on the business of the Đukanović trusts is located, has moved to an address in Geneva.

The author of this article happened to be at the passport control of London's Heathrow Airport at the same time with Đukanović, his wife and friends on May 30, 2012, the same day when a London lawyer certified a copy of the diplomatic passport of the then president of DPS, as part of the procedure for establishing his Victoria Trust.

In the copy of the certification stamp, published by MANS, it is stated that the lawyer personally made sure that the copy of the passport corresponds to the original, and that the photograph faithfully reflects the image of the owner, from which it follows that Đukanović should have personally brought the passport and shown it to the lawyer.

Đukanović was accompanied to Heathrow Airport by his wife Lidija, godfather Duško Ban and his wife and friend Zoran Ćoćo Bećirović.

The Đukanovićs denied that they had any assets in the established trusts, and MANS established that they existed at least until 2014.

How "Vijesti" got the flight data

OCCRP provided "Vijesti" with data on the flights of the state "lir-jet" from the ADSB-Exchange cooperative flight monitoring network, in cooperation with C4ADS. This network is the largest cooperation of organizations and individuals that monitor and store data on the direction of movement, altitude and speed of aircraft movement (ADS-B/Mode S/MLAT), and is the largest public source of unfiltered flight data, according to the network's website.

The network uses a huge number of devices, so-called feeders, which receive from the ground the signal emitted by the aircraft's transponder during flight, and record data on the aircraft's movement around the world.

From the ADSB-Exchange data, it is not possible to determine the precise place of landing and takeoff, but only the airports closest to the location of the aircraft at the moment when a receiver "caught" the first or last signal of the aircraft in the air. However, based on the analysis of the plane's trajectory, flight height, reduction and increase of speed during landing and takeoff, vertical speed during climb and descent, as well as the time of "absence" from the network, it can be safely concluded from where the plane took off, where it landed and how long he was grounded.

In the Lake Geneva region there are seven airports on the territory of Switzerland and France and they are listed in the ADSB-Exchange data for each flight by distance from the location of the aircraft whose signal was "caught" during landing or takeoff.

When the pilot turns off the transponder, whose signals are also received by flight controls, the network cannot record the movement of the aircraft. This is probably why in some cases there is no information about the incoming or outgoing flight of the state "lear-jet".

Flight to Paris still shrouded in secrecy

Đukanović used the state plane during the 2019/2020 New Year holidays. for going to Paris, from where he traveled to Miami with his wife and friends, as well as for returning from Paris ten days later to Podgorica, MANS established in February last year.

The President explained to the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption that he had official duties in Paris on December 29, 2019, which he did not inform the public about because "the meetings involved an appropriate level of secrecy", after which he traveled on a regular line to Miami at his own expense, he announced is ASK in January of this year. Đukanović returned from Paris to Podgorica on January 10 by state plane.

Referring to the decision of the Special State Prosecutor's Office, which rejected MANS' report for abuse of official position, the ASK determined that Đukanović did not violate the law.

The Director of the MANS Research Center, Dejan Milovac, said then that SDT and ASK did not use other evidence to verify Đukanović's claim that he was in Paris officially and secretly, but that they only stated that the flight approval procedure was followed.

Milovac said that ASK did not appreciate the fact that the state plane was returned to Montenegro after the official meetings in Paris, and that, after Djukanovic returned from Miami, it was again sent to Paris to pick him up.

"Even if it really was an official trip to Paris, it is indisputable that Đukanović's decision to spend the New Year's holidays in the USA cost Montenegrin citizens additionally in the form of subsequent flights of the state plane to Paris," Milovac said.

Graphic author: Ivan Ivanović