Today it is clear that behind every attack on the Democrats, behind every persecution, behind every pressure, there were high-ranking criminals connected to the government at the time, Boris Bogdanović, president of the Democratic Montenegro Parliamentary Group, announced today.
"The citizens of Montenegro have finally been presented with evidence that no one can deny: everything we said, everything we warned, everything we endured was true. Before the elections in Nikšić, the official of the Democrats, Krsto Radović, and our activists were not attacked by citizens, they were not followed by state officials, they were not stopped by institutions," Bogdanović stressed in a statement.
He said this in response to the fact that Vijesti published today that police officer Petar Lazović, with the words "Remove everyone from the house... And say that you did not attack them and that you did not have weapons... Say that they attacked you on your property, so that they can take down your Montenegrin flag," was instructing Zoran Žuti Đukanović on what to do, after he was publicly accused by the Democratic Party of Montenegro of physically and verbally attacking official Krsto Radović and activists of that party during the height of the election battle for Nikšić.
"We were attacked by armed men from the most monstrous criminal clans, led by Yellow Djukanovic. And who was behind it all? Petar Lazovic for the needs of the former regime and our political opponents. The man who is now charged with smuggling tons of cocaine, abusing his official position, and creating a criminal organization. The man who for years was an untouchable symbol of a symbiosis of crime, the apparatus of force, and the politics that protected them. And what did he do after the attack he organized? He told the attacker: 'Remove the evidence. A search is underway. Accuse the Democrats of wanting to take the flag down from the balcony.' "That is their model of government: they organize the attack, hide the evidence, and accuse the victim. Today it is clear that behind every attack on the Democrats, behind every persecution, behind every pressure, there were high-ranking criminals connected to the government of the time. We were not only attacked politically, we were arrested, followed, stalked, eavesdropped on, intimidated, and physically threatened by people who were campaigning for the former president," Bogdanović said in a statement.
He added that in the same campaign, members of the Montenegrin Army, associated with Predrag Bošković, secretly monitored Aleksa Bečić, the President of the Parliament of Montenegro, during the election campaign in Nikšić.
"We were not in political competition then, we were up against the most monstrous structures this country has ever seen. With people accused of murder, drug trafficking, organized crime. With state apparatuses that served criminals, not the state. That's why they are frustrated with the Democrats. That's why they don't mention us. That's why they hired the criminal organization of Aco Mijajlović and Ranko Ubović to invent scandals and try to replace our people in the security sector with lies. Because for the first time in their lives, these people are not under their control. That's why now you are watching how, one by one, each of their groups splits, falls apart, breaks and disappears," said Bogdanović.
Leković: We are asking for the case to be reopened
"For decades, the police in Montenegro have been run by crime, and the prosecution has remained silent so as not to anger it. Every attack on the Democrats was justified in advance, and every truth suppressed in advance. That is why today we are clearly and loudly demanding that the competent institutions speak out and explain their silence in 2021 when the Democratic Party official Krsto Radović was attacked in Nikšić. We are demanding that this case be reopened and that all responsible attackers and instigators of Krsto Radović be prosecuted," said Democratic Party MP Momčilo Leković.
He added that it must finally be said and revealed "who kept whom under control while the criminals conducted operations in Nikšić, while evidence was hidden and victims were mistreated."
"Everything that is coming to light today is not new to us. We knew that criminals were protected and that institutions protected them. Institutions that turned a blind eye and let criminal structures command the state as their private property. In the case of Krsto Radović in 2021, the institutions did not just fail, they betrayed. They betrayed the victims. They betrayed the citizens. They betrayed the very idea of justice. While armed criminals, under the protection of their connections in the police, attacked our people, passed through checkpoints as VIP guests and received instructions on how to hide evidence, no one reacted," Leković said.
He said that on the other hand, the institutions at that time had enough strength to prosecute and punish the same Krsto Radović.
"In the end, the victim turned out to be the culprit. And the criminals remained protected. If there is a definition of institutional collapse for a country, then the institutions that the former regime created, shaped and nurtured are the best definition of that collapse. And the sentence: 'Remove everyone from the house... and say that you did not attack them and that you did not have weapons... Say that they attacked you on your property, so that they can take down your Montenegrin flag' is the most naked evidence of how the system functioned at that time and how the flag of Montenegro was also misused as a means of manipulation."
Leković said that "it was not a flag in the hands of patriots."
"It was a flag turned into an alibi, a lie prepared in advance, a pre-arranged construction. It was an instrument for covering up attacks, laundering crimes and shifting blame to the innocent. They tried to use the flag to create a smokescreen, to turn criminal acts into 'defense of the state'. To turn the perpetrators into 'defenders' and the victims into 'traitors'. That is the greatest sacrilege, to misuse a state symbol to cover up one's own wrongdoing. Instead of representing the honor and dignity of the state, the flag in the hands of regime structures became a screen, a prop for staging and a parody of justice. And that is why today we clearly say that they did not defend the flag, but rather used the flag to protect themselves from the truth," said Leković.
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