The Special State Prosecutor's Office (SDT) demanded that the passports of the leaders of the Democratic Front be confiscated because of the SMS correspondence between Milan Knežević and his lawyer Goran Rodić, found in the lawyer's confiscated phone.
This is written in the decision by which the High Court ordered on July 6 that Knežević and Andrija Mandić's travel documents be confiscated.
Rodić's phone was confiscated at the end of June by order of the SDT, which suspects him of having committed the criminal offense of bribery by incitement in the A2A case.
SDT illegally used his communication with Knežević, according to the announcement of the Bar Association. "Objects, files or documents, as well as information obtained during the search of lawyers and law offices, cannot be used for the purpose of conducting proceedings against any party and the law office", announced earlier from AK.
The SDT, headed by Milivoje Katnić, demanded on June 5 that the passports of the leaders of the DF, suspected of attempted terrorism in the October 2016 elections, be confiscated in order not to obstruct the proceedings by going to another country. A day later, the court received a supplement to that proposal from them.
"In addition to the proposal, the prosecutor stated that from the submitted communications between the defendant Milan Knežević and Goran Rodić, a plan and intention to delay the criminal proceedings emerges, stating that they establish that the defendants will try to postpone the criminal proceedings at all costs by asking postponement of the court for the preparation of the defense, and after that the request for the exemption of the acting president of the Council, which they determine from the communication that was made on June 20, 2017", it is written in the explanation of the decision of the High Court.
On that day, Knežević and Rodić communicated via WhatsApp.
In the correspondence, which "Vijesti" had access to, Knežević informs his defense attorney that the hearing in the case is scheduled for July 19, 20 and 21.
After that, Rodić replied that it was an inappropriate acceleration of the process, because no one had received the files yet:
"Except for those proposed by the indictment - and all of that needs to be checked and processed. I sent an urgent request for the files on Friday, but nothing yet," answered the lawyer.
After several exchanged messages, Rodić explains to Knežević that it is in their interest to adhere to the law and the basic principles of criminal procedure:
"And we are looking for what belongs to us by law - that is all the documents and enough time to prepare the defense".
Knežević then asks him:
"And what can you do, ask for a postponement?"
"Of course, more of us defense attorneys to raise the problem together - objectively, even she cannot do 19 registrants from receiving the case until July 27, but she really doesn't care according to the directive to the general jury," answered Rodić...
After that, he explained to his client that in the event that the High Court does not accept the defense motion for adjournment, an exemption can be sought.
To Knežević's question "how do they think we are participating in the process, when we did not have access to all the case files", Rodić answers:
"They use force, if possible, with empty platitudes, but we have everything we asked for in writing, chronologically, so that even an illiterate person can see what is being done."
SDT "Vijesti" was told at the end of last week that "despite SDT's efforts to have a trial in the case of a coup d'état as soon as possible, there are indications that there will be major obstructions, non-appearance of defendants at hearings, requests for adjournment".
At the time, they did not specify that they got the clues from Rodić's communication with the client.
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