For the panel of Judge Veljko Radovanović, the indictment for the robbery of the post office in Nikšić and the murder of security guard Ljubiša Mrdak fell like a house of cards because he found no evidence in it. The prosecution offered as one of the key pieces of evidence a sun visor, which allegedly fell from the Nissan Qashqai car used to rob the post office, on which the DNA of the accused Petar Zolak was found.
"If the aforementioned protection was in the vehicle used to commit the criminal offense, in which, according to the indictment, the accused Svjetlanović and Miljković were also present, and 40 days before that the same vehicle was used by the accused Knežević, how is it possible that biological traces of these persons were not found on this mesh? Doubts about this evidence are also cast on the fact that the mesh contains biological traces of a female person," the verdict states.
To make matters worse, the witness who allegedly saw the sunshade fall out of the car denied it in court.
"Witness Nikitović stated in his testimony before the prosecution that a man who was among the gathered citizens told him that a net, a sunshade, had fallen out of a white vehicle, while he stated in court that he had not spoken to any of the gathered citizens, that he had never mentioned any net to the police or the prosecutor, and he claims this because he has no reason to make it up," the verdict of Judge Veljko Radovanović states.
It also got stuck on the claim that the accused Svjetlanović cut up the clothes they were wearing during the robbery and threw them into the sewer in the apartment rented by the accused Miljković, and his DNA was found on a wooden stick. However, there was no DNA on the clothes, nor any evidence that Svjetlanović was in the apartment after the robbery. The judge asks "Why wouldn't the people who planned to burn the vehicle and weapons also burn the clothes, but go to the place Grebice and instead of burning them, throw them into the sewer of the apartment that they know can be connected to one of the accused?".
It was also not proven to the court that Mitar Knežević from Nikšić instructed Stojan Albijanić to drive a Nissan Qashqai vehicle past the border crossing into Montenegro, that he hid the vehicle until the moment of the robbery, after which he handed it over to the four accused of robbery.
"Based on the time of the accused Knežević's arrival at the Igalo Institute at 8:10 a.m. and the time from the surveillance cameras that observed the accused leaving the apartment building where he lives at 5:50 a.m., the court finds that during this time he could not have taken all the actions, namely to go and get the Nissan Qashqai vehicle, which the prosecution claims he was hiding, handed it over to the accused and then drove from Nikšić to Igalo, all this especially considering the fact that the presented evidence did not establish that Knežević participated in the transfer of this vehicle to Montenegro at all, nor that he was hiding it," the verdict states.
The acquittal was supported by the testimonies of security guards, Post Office employees, and citizens who happened to be at the Post Office at the time of the robbery.
"None of the witnesses who were present when the critical event took place recognized the accused Miljković, Svjetlanović and Zolak as the persons who committed the criminal offense. The eyewitness accounts differ in terms of the number of attackers, the clothing they were wearing, how many of them had them and what weapons they had," the verdict states.
The verdict states that it has not been proven that Zolak observed the scene the night before the robbery, as well as immediately before it was committed, and that after the murder of Mrdak, he and Miljković got out of the Nissan Qashqai and into a Citroen Kaktus and drove to Ostrog. The judge also points out that setting the vehicle on fire erased potential evidence.
"Despite the indisputable fact that the burning vehicle contained two automatic rifles and one revolver, the court was unable, based on the DNA, PEH and forensic examinations, to establish any trace or evidence that would connect the defendants to this vehicle and therefore to the commission of the crime," the judge stated in the verdict.
Radovanović concluded that, despite the court's great efforts, everything remained at the level of suspicion, or rather, indications, and in some segments, even without indications that these seven people stole 424 thousand intended for pension payments and killed Ljubiša Mrdak on that occasion.
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