Political games are killing the fight against the mafia: Why is there less and less dust rising after the arrest of "big fish"?

"Montenegrin society is a society of avengers... Revanchism is just a political name for revenge. This means that there is no awareness that a line should be drawn under the Montenegrin practice of revenge... And he is greatly mistaken if, in those handcuffs over which he exults, at the hands of other people, he does not recognize his own handcuffs tomorrow."

Thus, the former long-time head of the Government, state and Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) Milo Djukanovic spoke in April 2024, ten days after the arrest of a former senior police official Zoran Lazović and former Chief Special Prosecutor (GST) Milivoj Katnić.

The action of the Special State Prosecutor's Office (SDT) was loudly welcomed by almost all government actors, including the Prime Minister. Milojko Spajić (Europe Now Movement). He said at the time that these arrests were evidence of “the degree of infiltration of organized crime into the institutions of the system, which were created during the former government”.

Spajić's colleagues from the ruling majority spoke of a "great day for justice", an indicator that "there is no one stronger than the state", a "victory over the mafia", "liberation of institutions from criminal centers of power"... On the other hand, the DPS said at the time that this was a "continuation of revanchism" that has been going on since the elections on August 30, 2020, when that party moved to the opposition benches after 30 years of rule, while the GST Vladimir Novović called a "sky prosecutor" who works at the behest of the authorities.

Two years after the arrest of Lazović and Katnić, Đukanović's brother was deprived of his liberty, Aco Djukanovic, who is considered one of the most powerful people in Montenegro and a man to whom many major criminal scandals from the time of the DPS government are linked.

However, Milo Đukanović has not commented on the matter, and the party of which he is the honorary president has barely reacted. However, what was more surprising was the lack of "euphoria" from the ruling parties, with the exception of representatives of the Democrats, the party that manages the security sector, while the civil sector raised the question - whether this is a crackdown on crime or a politically motivated arrest. The recent case of the arrest of a businessman was also followed in a similar manner Veselin Barović.

Suspicions that this is a politically motivated arrest are caused by the level of the crime that Đukanović is accused of. While Lazović and Katnić are accused of serious crimes (such as creating a criminal organization and abuse of office), Đukanović is suspected of illegal possession of weapons - which, one could say, is a trifle compared to the many controversial deals in which he allegedly participated: the privatization of Nikšićka Banka in 2005, which became Prva Banka in 2007; the state loan of over 40 million euros with which it was saved from bankruptcy in 2009 (and which was approved by the government headed by Milo Đukanović); the “Limenka” scandal, when the state paid him over 10 million euros in compensation after he did not move out of the former police building and allowed Đukanović’s company to build on that location...

Does all of the above - prosecution for, as it currently works, minor crimes, rather than major scandals - provide an answer to the question: why is there less and less dust in Montenegro after the arrest of "big fish"?

Razić: And the government is chanting less and less

Attorney Andrijana Razić She told "Vijesti" that in any civilized and legally regulated state that Montenegro supposedly emulates and strives for - the arrest of the so-called "big fish" does not have as its primary goal the fulfillment of the expectations of the wider masses of the people hungry for "bread and games" - but rather a real, genuine urge to respect the law and constitution and preserve the legal and social order of the country.

She assessed that in such countries the rule applies - the "bigger fish" someone is, the more logically evidence of the highest possible quality and probative value should and must be collected for their arrest and bringing them to justice, so that the arrest "initially" achieves its purpose and satisfies justice.

"The judicial institutions in these countries know that the job does not end with just anyone's arrest - because anyone can be arrested at any time - but that it is important that behind that arrest, as the first step, there is a firm and well-founded belief that that arrest will inevitably result in a final conviction, which, again, will not be achieved through impermissible public pressure, but exclusively through the objective state of the case files," Razić stated.

However, she points out that in Montenegro, unfortunately, completely opposite rules apply, since the local institutions, according to her, are primarily guided by classic populism and unbearable servility towards the public's perception of fans - in the sense of "the bigger the fish, the more points" - without caring at all about the final result in the form of a court verdict, nor about basic human rights and freedoms.

Razić stated that, bearing in mind that such public spectacles have been going on for too long, and without the expected and announced final epilogues - "because the law cannot be raped" - there is evidently a saturation and weariness in society with all the new arrests of the remaining "big fish".

"I guess it's now become clear to everyone that this is how large debts are accumulated that we will all soon have to pay," she said.

The interviewee said that closely related to the previously highlighted fact is that even within the ranks of the authorities, there is less and less "chanting" about the latest arrests - "with some incredibly persistent exceptions", while the latest arrests (Veselin Barović and Aco Đukanović), very symptomatically, occurred in some - "let's say interesting, social moments".

"Although perhaps it's all a coincidence, if there are those who believe it. As someone who has been part of the judiciary for more than a decade and who has first-hand insight into the overall state of affairs, I have long had no doubt that we have become a state of absurdity, spectacle and political games - instead of being a state of law and justice, in which these lofty concepts have not been fundamentally compromised," Razić underlined.

Coincidences?

The timing of the arrests of Barović and Đukanović was indeed, as Razić says, “interesting, social moments.” Although this may not prove anything, the search of Barović’s property on February 12th began just before the broadcast of the show “Načisto” on Television Vijesti - whose topic was the escape Milos Medenica. Ahead of the broadcast, the show's author Petar Komnenic He confirmed that he had received a message from a person who claimed to be the fugitive Medenica.

Son of the former first lady of the Montenegrin judiciary Vesne Medenica, was sentenced in the first instance at the end of January to 10 years and two months in prison for, among other things, creating a criminal organization and smuggling, but the police did not find him at his residential address after making the decision. In the same process, Vesna Medenica was sentenced in the first instance to 10 years in prison.

Almost two weeks after the escape, the alleged Medenica contacted Komnenić, asking to include him on the show to "inform the public" that the video with his character that had previously appeared on social media was not the product of artificial intelligence, as the Police Directorate claimed, but was really him.

Komnenić spoke with the alleged Medenica during a commercial break, and the recording was broadcast at the very end of the program. The guest on that show was, among others, the Minister of Internal Affairs. Danilo Šaranović (Democrats). Šaranović himself confirmed that it was in his interest to talk more about the searches of Barović's property, and not about Medenica.

"Do you know what I'm sorry about, Mr. Komnenić - that we spent an hour and 55 minutes talking about whether Miloš Medenica is in the recording or not, and you didn't mention in a single word the reason why the Police Directorate implemented certain cases in relation to Veselin Barović before the start of this show, and we know that he is Milo Đukanović's closest intimate...", he said.

Barović was arrested late that evening because, as his lawyer explained to "Vijesti", Slobodan Smolović, 17 bullets were found in Barović's possession for which he did not have a permit at the time, while a separate investigation is underway against him for tax evasion in the amount of over 300.000 euros. The prosecution filed an indictment against Barović at the end of February for illegal possession and carrying of weapons and explosives. Barović is at large.

For more than three decades, he has been considered one of Milo Đukanović's closest friends, and he was also mentioned in the indictment of the Italian prosecutor. Giuseppe Scelsi as one of the actors in tobacco smuggling during the 1990s, which went through Montenegro. During the mass voucher privatization, as the owner of "Eurofond", with a group of related persons and companies, he took over several Montenegrin companies, and was active in both domestic and regional capital markets.

As for the case of Aco Đukanović, the search of his property in Podgorica, and then Nikšić, was also carried out by a special police unit with “long” barrels, and it began on the same day (February 27) when the Parliament was supposed to discuss, for some of the public, controversial amendments to the Law on the National Security Agency (ANB) and Internal Affairs. Although this does not necessarily prove anything, the searches continued while the parliament was debating certain legal solutions, and DPS deputies strongly protested, accusing the government of wanting to turn Montenegro into a “police state”.

However, late that evening, an agreement was reached not to vote on the controversial regulations that evening, but seven days later, when the laws were adopted. In the meantime, the head of state Jakov Milatovic returned the regulations to parliament for reconsideration, but the highest legislative chamber voted them down again.

Djukanovic was arrested early the next morning (February 28), and during a search of the Djukanovic family home in Rastoci, police found several rifles and several hundred rounds of ammunition. Djukanovic's defense attorney, lawyer Nikola Martinovic, said at the time that some of the weapons found in the family home belonged to Aco Đukanović's brother, while the ammunition and bulletproof vests were forgotten by members of the police and secret service who had been guarding him (Milo) for years. Aco Đukanović was initially remanded in custody, but was released at the end of March to defend himself from freedom, after he provided the court with bail worth more than five million euros, including one million euros in cash.

From Đukanović's apartment in Podgorica, the police seized a large number of papers and documentation with labels such as "traitor", "negative campaign", "target number two", "Resist group"...

Head of the Democrats Parliamentary Club Boris Bogdanovic said after Đukanović's arrest that "this security sector, for the first time since the changes of August 30, did what many had considered impossible for years: sent Aco Đukanović to Spuž."

However, there were hardly any other reactions from the authorities, let alone euphoric ones like the arrest of Vesna Medenica, Lazović, Katnić... The prosecution of Barović was followed even more "quieter".

On the other hand, the DPS said that the police's actions in the case of the arrest and search of Aco Đukanović's apartment represent the "culmination of political abuse" of that institution, saying that "if this is the beginning of an election campaign by the ruling majority or a disappearing party that has hijacked the security sector and is abusing it - then this is a very dangerous phenomenon."

Leković: No spectacle

Responding to the question of whether he believes that the arrests of "big fish" have lost the significance they once had, the Democratic MP Momcilo Leković He told "Vijesti" that the arrests are not losing their significance.

"On the contrary. Every arrest of a 'big fish' is a call to the court to do its job. And that call comes not only from Montenegro, but also from the European Union. We are disappointed with the third branch of government because of its inefficiency and because verdicts are not issued within a reasonable time," he said.

Leković says that's why they insisted on vetting, as the party claims to implement it in the security sector.

"... Where 179 police officers and soldiers have already been suspended. The problem is not that arrests are finally being made, but that the judiciary is too slow to adjudicate. The fight against corruption must not stop because the courts are late. It must be even stronger, as a clear message and a decisive warning," the interlocutor said.

In addition to Medenica, Lazović, Katnić, Đukanović and Barović, many other people connected to the former regime have been arrested since the change of government - former special prosecutors Sasa Cadjenovic i Lidija Mitrović, former top police officers Veselin Veljović i Slavko Stojanovic, former head of the ANB Dejan Perunicic and a longtime secret police agent Dusko Golubovic, son of Zoran Lazović, Petar, former ministers Petar Ivanovic i Milutin Simovic (both from DPS), former director of the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption Jelena Perović, former president of the Commercial Court Blazo Jovanić...

However, all these arrests have so far resulted in only one final verdict - Lidija Mitrović was sentenced to seven months in prison for abuse of office. However, she, like Miloš Medenica, is currently on the run.

When asked how he views the assessments of some in the public that the arrests of Aco Đukanović and Barović are indicators that the government relies more on spectacle, i.e. that arrests are made to score political points, rather than on a genuine fight against corruption, and that the two were arrested for "little things", Leković replied - "does anyone give five million euros in bail for a little thing?".

"Is a man who has nothing to fear reacting in panic? Aco Đukanović is not a small case, but a brutal symbol of a system in which individuals have lived for decades with the belief that the law does not apply to them. These are people who once were not even allowed to be stopped in traffic, let alone prosecuted," he underlined.

According to Leković, this is not a spectacle, but an attack on the myth of untouchability. He assessed that the spectacle was "what it used to be, when the entire state looked at the powerful, and the institutions looked at the floor," and that today, for the first time, the message is being sent that neither a big name, nor a big fortune, nor a big surname can be above the law.

"And we are all waiting to see what was found in Đukanović's house for which he gave five million euros in bail. Let me remind you that Vesko Barović was not arrested for a 'little thing' either, but on suspicion of evading taxes worth over 300 thousand euros," claims Leković.

Muk: The public is tired.

President of the Board of Directors of the Institute Alternative and former member of the Prosecutorial Council, Stevo Muk, told "Vijesti" that the public is generally tired of the large number of police and prosecutorial cases without a court epilogue, explaining that this, of course, does not mean that the police and prosecutor's office should stop detecting and prosecuting perpetrators of criminal offenses at all levels.

"Responsibilities are clearly divided between the police, the prosecution and the courts, and the speed of adjudication often depends on the quality of the evidence, and certainly the character of the verdict. The courts must be left to judge, which implies that the decisions must be both acquittal and conviction. If the courts are publicly or secretly obliged to accept every proposal for detention and that court decisions must be convictions, then there is no rule of law. Moreover, this is how all the shortcomings of the police and the prosecution are perfidiously hidden," Muk assessed.

According to him, it is more important than what the verdicts are, that they are delivered within a reasonable time, adding that when there are not, or when there are not enough cases of real weight and importance, a vacuum will appear to which the public reacts.

"To satisfy the need for some kind of justice, arrests and detentions are sometimes offered as a substitute for significant cases and quality work. I fear that as the criminal justice potential of 'Sky Communications' is depleted, there will be fewer and fewer large and significant cases. More needs to be done to improve the capacity of the police and prosecutor's office in the last five years," Muk pointed out.

He said that the public will unfortunately have to come to terms with the fact that individuals at the top of the pyramid of the previous regime will essentially never be prosecuted, saying that there are several reasons for this - from the passage of time and the statute of limitations in numerous scandals, to the inaction of the competent authorities in the last five years and earlier, to political "deals" and influence.

Muk stated that one day someone from the prosecution will have to say what is really possible and what must be stopped, and that anything else is misleading the public.

"Until then, politicians will try to hunt in the dark, asking the police and prosecutors to align their work and decisions with their interests, which will always put the police and prosecutors to a serious test of their independence," he pointed out.