Written evidence has been used for several hearings in this proceeding.
However, as we have learned unofficially, the hearing was postponed today because the prosecution failed to submit certain written evidence to the court, copies of which are in the case files.
The defense's position is that these copies are unclear and illegible.
As unofficially announced by the defense, Special State Prosecutor Jovan Vukotic said today that they have not yet managed to obtain this evidence and that they will make every effort to do so in the coming days.
We remind you that at the previous hearing, the defense had similar objections. Then, during the reading of the extensive evidence, the defense made sharp remarks and objections, claiming that the SDT's evidence had no "procedural value". The lawyers also pointed out that the files contained mostly copies, without the originals being submitted, while many documents were illegible, uncertified and without a clear origin.
As a reminder, the Podgorica High Court panel confirmed the indictment against both the former chief of the Bar criminal police and Lija Vasović. The SDT suspects that the former police director, through the Sky application, informed businessman Aleksandar Mrkić on December 22, 2020, that a search was being prepared for a warehouse where illegal cigarettes were stored, thus abusing his official position. The indictment also includes Nikola Mrkić, Mujo Nikočević, Arsenije Kalezić, Stefan and Nikola Bubanja, Željko Bulatović, Dušica Bulatović, Predrag Veljić, Borislav Lečić, Nemanja Anđelković, Goran Gluščević, Nikola Bačilović and Sadig Elnagar.
As a reminder, the Special State Prosecutor's Office has submitted an indictment to the Special Department of the High Court in Podgorica against 15 defendants: AM, VV, MN, AK, NM, SB, NB, Ž.B., DB, PV, BL, NA, GG, NB and SE, for the criminal offenses of creating a criminal organization, two criminal offenses of smuggling, money laundering and abuse of official position.
"The evidence collected during the investigation and the investigation leads to a reasonable suspicion that the defendant AM, in 2018, created a criminal organization that operated on the territory of Montenegro, and whose members included the then Director of the Police Administration and later Advisor to the President of Montenegro for Defense and Security, the defendant VV, and other defendants, with the aim of smuggling cigarettes from the Free Customs Zone of the Port of Bar and laundering money," the SDT previously stated.
Also, the prosecution's position is that the investigation and the investigation "gathered evidence that gives rise to a reasonable suspicion that the accused former director of the Police Directorate, in carrying out his duties in the criminal organization, abused his official position by, among other things, communicating to the organizer of the criminal organization via encrypted communication data obtained through the performance of police duties, which relate to the planning of the execution of the evidentiary search by the police, against a member of the criminal organization, thereby obtaining a benefit in the form of having access to data that he was not allowed to obtain and creating the time and space conditions for the member of the criminal organization to hide the objects of the criminal offense for which he is being prosecuted ex officio, so that the police would not find them."
