For more than a month, detainee Ljubo Vujadinović refuses to take food, thus protesting the delay in the court proceedings for the murder of police inspector Slavoljub Šćekić, in which he is one of the defendants.
According to "Vijesti" information from the Investigation Prison, his health condition is worrying after 34 days of hunger strike.
The Podgorica High Court claims that they are regularly informed about this, and the Spuš prison points out that the health service monitors his vital functions.
UIKS, in response to "Vijesti" questions, said that they treat Vujadinović as they treat all persons who have been detained:
"...Proceedings are carried out in accordance with the provisions of the Rulebook on closer methods of execution of detention, which, among other things, prescribe the accommodation, food and health care of detained persons. In this regard, in the case when a detained person refuses to take food, the president of the court, who is authorized to supervise detained persons, is immediately informed about this. Also, prison doctors constantly monitor the general state of health and vital functions of the detainee", explained the public relations service of the Administration.
They said that it is within the competence of the court to provide more detailed information about individuals who have been ordered to be detained.
Marija Raković, independent advisor for public relations of the High Court in Podgorica, replied to "Vijesta" that they were informed by the Administration for the Execution of Criminal Sanctions (UIKS) that Vujadinović is on hunger strike.
"This court was informed by UIKS that the detainee Lj. V., against whom criminal proceedings are being conducted before the Court of Appeal, started a hunger strike. The High Court is regularly informed about his state of health, and at its request, the judge of the High Court in Podgorica conducted an interview with the detained person in the UIKS premises," Raković said.
"Vijesti" recently announced that Vujadinović announced to the administration of the Investigation Prison that he would refuse food due to the unjustified delay in making a decision in a procedure that has lasted for almost two decades.
After applying, he did so and since then, as a sign of protest, he has been refusing food.
A 19-year process
Vujadinović, Saša Boreta, Ljubo Bigović and Milan Čila Šćekić were each sentenced to 30 years in prison for the murder of Šćekić in several court proceedings, but the verdicts were constantly overturned and the case is still before the Court of Appeal.
Šćekić was killed 19 years ago in the Tološi neighborhood of Podgorica. In front of the family house on August 30, 2005, he was hit by several shots from an automatic weapon.
According to the prosecution, Vujadinović and Milan Čila Šćekić are the direct perpetrators of the murder of the head of the Directorate for General Crime. The same indictment charged Boreta and Bigović with having organized that liquidation. The now deceased Alan Kožar was sentenced to six years in prison for the bomb attack on "Splendid".
The indictment states that the group blackmailed the investor who was building the hotel in Bečići to buy a plot of land next to it, which he refused, after which a series of bombings began.
Inspector Šćekić, he writes, was on their trail, which is why he was liquidated...
In the annulment decisions, including that of the Constitutional Court, it was explained that the testimony of the witness Zoran Vlaović, also known as Bohum, was the only evidence on which the conviction was based.
At that time, it was also demanded that the court, if possible, directly hear that protected witness and, at the main hearing, inspect the identity card of the Administration for the Execution of Criminal Sanctions for him, that is, that his petitions for the suspension of serving the sentence be submitted to them: "Everything for the sake of proper execution conclusions regarding the reliability and accuracy of ZV's statement, that is, the connection between his statement and his suspended sentence".
In that decision, the judges listed the chronology of the marathon court process, which has lasted almost twenty years.
They reminded that the Supreme Court, in its decision from April 2014, accepted the appeals and annulled the judgment of the Court of Appeal from April 2013 and returned the case to that court for retrial and decision.
In the renewed proceedings, after the hearing, the Court of Appeal rejected the appeals of the defense attorneys of the accused as unfounded and confirmed the verdict of the High Court in Podgorica from October 20, 2015, by which the defendants were sentenced to 9 years in prison. for killing a policeman.
Appeals also followed against that judgment of the Appellate Court, so that the Supreme Court, in its judgment of October 20, 2015, rejected as unfounded the appeal of the Supreme State Prosecutor's Office and the defense attorneys of the accused, and confirmed the judgment of the Court of Appeal of May 20, 2015.
After that, on June 25, 2019, the Constitutional Court accepted the constitutional appeals of the accused Boreta and Bigović, annulled the verdict of the Supreme Court of October 20, 10, and returned the case to that court for retrial.
"In the same decision, it was determined that due to the length of the criminal proceedings, the accused Boreta and Bigović's right to a trial within a reasonable time was violated in accordance with Article 32 of the Constitution of Montenegro and Article 6, paragraph 1 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms."
After that decision, in April 2019, the Supreme Court rejected the appeals of the Supreme State Prosecutor's Office as unfounded. By the same verdict, the appeals of the defendants and their lawyers were accepted and the judgment of the Court of Appeal from February 2015 was annulled and the case was sent back for retrial and decision.
In the repeated proceedings, the Court of Appeals held a panel session in May 2022, the subject of which were the appeals of the Supreme State Prosecutor's Office and the appeals of the defense attorneys of the accused.
After analyzing all the appeals, the Court of Appeals concluded that the appeals of the Prosecutor's Office and the defense attorneys of the accused...
They annulled the verdict of the High Court in Podgorica against Boreta, Bigović, Vujadinović, Šćekić and Kožar, respecting the appeals of the Supreme State Prosecutor's Office, the accused and their lawyers.
As they stated in the announcement, in the decision-making process on those appeals, the panel of that court established that in the first-instance proceedings, essential violations of the provisions of the criminal procedure were committed, which resulted in a violation of the right to defense and a fair trial, which was determined by the decision of the Constitutional Court of June 25. in 2019
"In the opinion of the panel of this court, these are serious violations that cannot be remedied in the proceedings before the second-instance court, for which reasons the first-instance verdict was canceled and the case returned to the same court for a retrial," said the Court of Appeal.
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