Marović becomes a free man on Saturday: from Sunday he can return to Montenegro without being arrested

The former senior official of the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) and former president of the state union of Serbia and Montenegro, Svetozar Marović, becomes a free man on Saturday (10 October), as that day marks the absolute expiry of the prison sentence imposed on him by the High Court in Podgorica as the head of the criminal organisation that caused damage worth millions to the municipality of Budva, as the Montenegrin newspaper Dan reports, cited by CdM.

Marović, who has been in Belgrade for ten years, beyond the reach of the Montenegrin authorities, can from Sunday (11 October) come to Montenegro without fear of being arrested. The Basic Court in Kotor is expected to take the formal decision on the expiry of the sentence — this was also confirmed by Marović’s lawyer, Zdravko Begović.

According to Begović, the expiry of the sentence of 3 years and 10 months begins on 10 October, and since Marović’s residence is in the territory of the municipality of Budva, the Kotor court is obliged ex officio to issue the relevant act. “So, on 11 October Svetozar Marović will be a free man and, if he intends to come to Montenegro, he can do so without any legal problem in relation to the High Court of Podgorica’s judgment,” Begović said.

Marović has been in Belgrade since 2016, while Serbia has refused at least seven requests and urgings from Montenegro’s Ministry of Justice for his extradition to serve the sentence, which he had accepted in a plea agreement with the Special State Prosecutor’s Office — then headed by Milivoje Katnić. Official Belgrade has never seriously explained why it refused extradition, Dan writes; it was initially said that Marović had gone to the Serbian capital for treatment, but in the meantime the media have repeatedly published photographs of him in various places in Belgrade, and he has even appeared several times on television channels.

Marović was arrested in December 2015 and a year later signed two plea agreements for organising the criminal group in several Budva affairs. After pleading guilty, he was sentenced to 3 years and 9 months in prison, with the obligation to return 1.1 million euros to the state and to pay 100,000 euros for humanitarian purposes. He later accused the DPS leadership of corruption, nepotism and authoritarianism, and Milo Đukanović of having fabricated the proceedings against him and his family. As Dan writes, the one-year sentence of his son, Miloš Marović, for abuses with municipal land in Prijevor, in Jaz, has also expired — the 318,000 euros set as the damage caused have, according to earlier media reports, been paid.