The Bjelopolje Prosecutor's Office does not answer questions about the prosecution of police officers who beat people, and their colleagues in the Basic State Prosecutor's Office in Podgorica claim that the cases in which they are acting are still in the investigative phase and that they are taking evidentiary actions.
It depends on the decision of those prosecutions whether the beating squad that operated within the former Department for Special Operational Support of the Sector for Combating Organized Crime and Corruption (SPBOK) will end up behind bars.
"The objects are in the investigation process and certain evidentiary actions are being undertaken in them. Due to the protection of the interests of the proceedings, we cannot give you more information for the time being", says the answers signed by the manager of ODT Podgorica, Duško Milanović.
The High Prosecutor's Office in Bijelo Polje did not answer the questions about the stage of the case they formed on June 15 against several officers of the Police Directorate for the criminal offense of torture.
The questions of how many people have the status of a suspect, who they are, whether they were heard, but also the questions of how many were injured in that case and whether statements were taken from them remained unanswered.
At the beginning of the summer, the Special State Prosecutor's Office (SDT) delegated the cases of police torture and ill-treatment of those arrested in the period from 2020 to the beginning of 2021 to that prosecutor's office and their colleagues in the ODT Podgorica.
Along with the processed cases, they also delivered the SKY documentation, which arrived from Europol through international legal assistance, so, as "Vijesti" announced earlier, the prosecutors in the lower prosecutor's offices had the easier part of their job to make a decision and open an investigation.
Milanović previously told "Vijesta" that in 2020 and 2021 four cases related to police torture were filed in that prosecutor's office, and that at the end of May they also received transcripts from Sky from SDT.
He explained that these items were previously delivered to SDT, but that they were returned to them on May 31: "With a certain SKY communication, which we did not have before"...
He also said that before the transcripts were delivered to them, those cases were dealt with.
"And as for SKY communication, it is being checked. Depending on the obtained evidence, we will make a decision in the cases", says Milanović in his reply.
At least 15 employees of the former Department who worked in the Sector of the then Assistant Director of Police are being processed by the prosecution in the investigative part of the procedure. Zoran Lazović, due to the suspicion that they "tortured and abused at least five arrested persons" during their work and police processing.
In March, the Libertass portal published the transcripts of SKY communication, in which it is stated that the members of that department are under the command Mirko Banović, and whose officials were Petar Lazovic, Predrag Jestrović, Jugoslav Raičević, Slobodan Mickovic, Ivan Djokovic, Ivan Stamatović, Željko Radunović, Drazen Miranović, Sead Luboder, Vuk Šuković, Momo Mirkovic, Mirko Djukic, Milorad Mitrovic i Nesko Jaredić, judging by the findings of Europol, committed, witnessed or knew that criminal acts of torture were being committed against the arrested.
Petar denied his father in messages
Those arrested for the most serious crimes tried to talk about the "feats" of that police squad, whose informal head was Petar Lazović, even while his father was in charge of the fight against the mafia, but the Police Directorate did not listen to them - they claimed that they would reward their officers for professional results.
At the end of January 2021, the then elder Lazović called the attempts of lawyers to inform the public about the abuse that their clients suffered from that beating squad and the filing of criminal charges because of it, an afterthought and asserted that he was sure that they did everything in accordance with the law.
At a conference organized on the occasion of preventing the murder of Belgrade criminals, mercenaries of the Kavac clan, Veljko Belivuk i Marko Miljkovic, Zoran Lazović, saying that the media made thugs out of those two Belgraders, also commented on media reports about torture.
"That afterthought is the members of organized criminal groups, their leaders and their recognizable lawyers, who remembered what happened five, six months ago, or the last year, so now they are so violent, because of the environment created and the attempt to humiliate the police, with criminal charges against members of the SBPOKK, with petitions for internal control, and civil control... And we don't have a problem with that either, we will respond to every petition, of course, and every call from the prosecution, and respond at the moment when it they will ask us to provide the entire documentation, because we are absolutely sure that we did everything in accordance with the law and the powers of the members of the Police Administration. But these afterthoughts and their sponsors of all that are definitely very present in the public these days and they get exceptional space in the media," Lazović said at the press conference of the Special State Prosecutor's Office (STP), on January 28, 2021.
In the days before that, the accusations of the people of Nikšić were published Jovan Mrvaljević i Milo Jovanovic, close to the Skaljar clan - that on December 30, 2020, members of the SBPOKK beat, mistreated, tortured, blackmailed them, threatened them with rape and murder, but also that they would harm their families, asking them to testify falsely that they were working for the now-deceased resident of Kotor, Jovan Vukotić, and that they have a task to kill some kavčani.
Among the members of the SBPOKK they pointed the finger at, was Lazović's son, the now arrested secret agent, Petar.
It was Petar Lazović, communicating through an encrypted application with the heads of the fraud and drug cartels from Pljevlja - Radoj Zvicer i Darko Sarić, denied everything his father Zoran said.
The arrested security guard bragged to the criminals that he was torturing "enemies" - members of the organized criminal group Skaljar clan, that he was hunting them, and he also shared with them photos showing how he abused, humiliated and inhumanely treated the arrested. He also informed them that he "kidnapped some of the skalars with the boys" after they were released from the police station after an informative interview...
The messages he exchanged with the Swiss and his fugitive colleague Ljubo Milović they also show that he carried out their orders - to "skin" some of the arrested...
Bonus video:
