Ex-CIA Officer Denies Aiding Montenegro 'Coup Plot'

The high-profile coup plot trial in Podgorica on Tuesday heard testimony from US security company executive Brian Scott, an ex-CIA operative who the prosecution claims offered to evacuate opposition politicians and protesters from parliament during a violent overthrow of the government that was allegedly planned for October 2016.

According to the Montenegrin prosecution, Scott, an executive at the US-based private security company Strategic Risk Management, was approached in 2016 through a chain of individuals connected to the pro-Russian opposition Democratic Front party.

He was allegedly asked to provide services including "counter-surveillance and evacuation" during what the Montenegrin prosecution claims was an attempt to kill then Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic.

Addressing the court via a video link from Orlando, Florida, where his company is based, Scott said he had nothing to with any alleged coup plans in Montenegro in October 2016 or knowledge of any alleged crimes in the tiny Adriatic country.

Scott said that why his company did not want get to involved in Montenegro for two reasons, the first being that one of its associates had connections "with the highest levels of power in Montenegro and with the party in power".

Another reason for not getting involved was the Democratic Front's "alleged relationship with the Russian intelligence service", he added.

He also said that the company was not asked to conduct any evacuation from the Montenegrin parliament.

Numerous theories are still circulating about what happened on October 16, 2016 on election day in Montenegro when 20 mostly Serbian citizens were arrested on terrorism charges.

Supporters of the official version of the coup plot theory say the evidence...