Montenegro Journalist Rejects Drugs Smuggling Charge

Presenting his defence before the court in Podgorica on Thursday, investigative journalist Jovo Martinovic pleaded not guilty to drugs smuggling, saying his contacts with the other suspects in the case were purely linked to his work as a journalist.

Martinovic said his interactions with three of the other 17 suspects in the alleged drug-trafficking network formed part of a journalistic investigation into crime.

After spending 14 months in custody, Judge Vesna Pean rejected the request of Martinovic's legal representatives to free him from detention.

Martinovic said that for many years he had been investigating organized crime, corruption and terrorism in the Balkans, and one of his tasks was also exposing cannabis plantation and production in Albania.

"Even some of the accused in this case knew my personal opinion about it [the narcotics trade] and why it was not possible for me to participate in the smuggling of drugs," Martinovic told the court.

Martinovic was charged with aiding and belonging to a drugs-trafficking gang in April.

He has been in custody since October 2015, when he was arrested alongside 17 others from Montenegro in a joint operation with Croatian police.

Martinovic told the court that he was especially confused by part of the indictment accusing him of planting an "application for secure communication that cannot be traced" on one of the defendants.

"It is an insult to all journalists; our job is not to install such devices. I demand that the prosecution say what type of application I installed, because it is not said in the indictment, and is that against the law," Martinovic insisted.

BIRN reported that Martinovic had interactions with two of the other 17...