The Mijajlović case reaches the Court of Appeals

The case of the criminal group accused by the Special State Prosecutor’s Office (SDT) of being allegedly led by Aleksandar Mijajlović has finally “travelled” from the High Court in Podgorica to the Court of Appeals: as Vijesti reports, based on the High Court’s own confirmation, the case files Kvso 7/26 and the appeals filed against the decision to dismiss the indictment were delivered today to the Court of Appeals, after the procedural conditions were met.

The extra-trial panel composed of judges Zoran Radović, Boris Savić and Vesna Kovačević, after reviewing the supplemented indictment, on September 8 took the decision to dismiss it, finding that the file does not contain sufficient evidence that Mijajlović had organised the criminal organisation by personally engaging, via the Viber and WhatsApp platforms, former senior National Security Agency (ANB) operative Draga Spičanović, police officers Vladan Lazović and Milovan Pavićević, prosecutor Andrijana Nastić and former defence minister and Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) official Predrag Bošković.

According to the panel’s reasoning, there is not sufficient evidence either that he had assigned them roles and tasks and that they had accepted them; the court also assessed that the mere obtaining of data cannot be considered a “benefit” within the meaning of Article 416 of the Criminal Code of Montenegro.

Although the decision was taken on September 8, the High Court announced it only on September 16; SDT spokesman Vukas Radonjić called the decision unlawful and “dangerous for Montenegro,” while two days after the decision was announced the SDT filed an appeal for essential violations of criminal procedure provisions and erroneous establishment of the factual situation, asking the Court of Appeals to overturn the High Court’s decision and confirm the indictment against Mijajlović’s group.

This is a new development in the case in which the SDT in April filed an indictment against Mijajlović for creating a criminal organisation which, according to the prosecution, operated in Montenegro from 2019 to February 2024 with the aim of committing offences of abuse of official duty and disclosure of secret data for unlawful gain of power. After the indictment was dismissed, his detention was lifted on that basis, but was extended the same day in the cocaine case — as the High Court announced on September 22, he is held in detention for creating a criminal organisation and the production, possession and trafficking of drugs; in this case, connected to the smuggling of 4,139.605 kilograms of cocaine from South America to Europe, nine other people are also accused, including brothers Vuk and Vlado Banićević.