Montenegrin Prosecutors ‘Pressurised by Superiors in Serbian Gang Case’

Montenegrin state prosecutor Vukas Radonjic at a conference in Podgorica. Photo: PR Centar

On October 14, 2021, the Basic Prosecution in Podgorica detained the two police officers, Aleksandar Boskovic and Sasa Djurovic, for allowing Belivuk and Miljkovic to enter the country.

But after questioning, the Special State Prosecutor said the police officers had not abused their authority and released them.

While being questioned on Tuesday by government and prosecution officials at the Parliamentary Committee for the Political System and Judiciary, Radonjic said that the head of the Higher Prosecutor, Lepa Medenica, and the then interim Supreme State Prosecutor Drazen Buric pressurised him to release the police officers.

"Medenica called me around midnight and asked me to let the policemen go, claiming I was acting illegally. When I refused, the interim Supreme State Prosecutor's Office urged me to submit the case to the Special State Prosecution," Radonjic said.

"Later I found that the Special State Prosecution dropped the charges," he added.

The then head of the Basic Prosecution in Podgorica, Nikola Boricic, said he was also pressurised by Medenica and Buric to release the policemen.

"I refused their request to take the case from Radonjic. Because of that incident, at the end of 2021, I was dismissed by an act of the head of the Higher State Prosecutor's Office," Boricic said.

Montenegro's outgoing Prime Minister Dritan Abazovic said that the operation to lift the entry bars on Belivuk and Miljkovic was organised by two former high-ranking police officers, Zoran Lazovic and Enis Bakovic.

Abazovic said that a special police unit led by Lazovic was providing security for Miljkovic and Belivuk during their visit to...