Prosecutors suspect Mijajlović and his group of planning the smuggling of cocaine that had already been seized?!
Manipulations involving Sky messages, on which indictments and orders to conduct investigations in the case of businessman Aleksandar Mijajlović are based, have received a new addition: the Podgorica-based businessman is accused of participating in the planning of cocaine smuggling that had been seized as much as eight days earlier. How is it possible that such a construct could serve as the basis for an indictment? Renowned German lawyer Christian Loden told Television E that if data integrity cannot be ensured and verified, and courts nevertheless allow indictments to be filed, this must be regarded as a deliberate violation of the principle of a fair trial
Is it possible to plan the smuggling of drugs that have already been seized? Although it sounds like an impossible, even chaotic question, precisely this impossible construct appears in the order to conduct an investigation into drug smuggling.
By an order dated December 5, the Special State Prosecutor’s Office accuses eleven individuals -among them Radoje Zvicer, Petar Lazović, Vuk and Vlado Banićević, Ljubo Milović and Aleksandar Mijajlović - of smuggling cocaine from the Ecuadorian port of Guayaquil to Europe.
The order is signed by three prosecutors - Ivan Medojević, Jovan Vukotić and Maja Janković - using Sky documents as key evidence for cocaine smuggling from Ecuador.
MERGING THE INCOMPATIBLE
It is obvious that the order was compiled from three prosecutorial materials, because the same twelve infamous sentences from Sky messages about cigarette smuggling - on which ETV has already reported extensively - also appear in this order.
- Defendant Petar Lazović offers defendant Aleksandar Mijajlović to participate in the smuggling of the narcotic drug cocaine from Ecuador to Rotterdam, that is, he conveys a message from defendants Ljubo Milović and Radoje Zvicer, who in this shipment of 500 kilograms of narcotic drugs are to participate with 60 and 100 kilograms - the prosecutorial act states, among other things.
In the order to conduct the investigation, which spans 317 pages, messages that are allegedly incriminating for the criminal group are cited across as many as 84 pages. Among others, messages from November 30 and December 1, 2020 are cited, when Aleksandar Mijajlović allegedly became involved in planning the delivery of cocaine from Ecuador.
THE „USED“ 12 MESSAGES
These are the already well-known messages in which the allegedly fugitive police officer Ljubo Milović asks: „Wherever ships go from Ecuador I can send / I am currently working Rotterdam / I worked Istanbul / I worked Hamburg…“.
Petar Lazović, formally an undercover police agent, then readily tries to determine the destination. He asks: „Is Bulgaria and Greece interesting / Can Macedonia work“, to which Milović replies with a counter-question: „Where is there a port in Macedonia?“.
This is a well-known part of the conversation that took place on November 30 and December 1, 2020. Television E and the ETV Portal have already thoroughly investigated and published reports on the misuse of the same messages in different investigations by the Special State Prosecutor’s Office.
In this case, the trio of prosecutors went a step further - they accuse Aleksandar Mijajlović of participating in the planning of cocaine smuggling that had already been seized.
And all of this is recorded in the order to conduct the investigation!
SMUGGLING OF ALREADY SEIZED DRUGS?
- These persons are linked to individuals who were involved with a quantity of the narcotic drug cocaine that was discovered on November 22, 2020 in container TGBU6868562 on the ship „MSC Arushi“ in the port of Guayaquil, Ecuador - the trio of prosecutors writes.
They thus fall into the trap of their own arrogance: the cited Sky conversation took place on November 30 and December 1, 2020, which naturally raises the question: How could Aleksandar Mijajlović, and the other suspects, have participated in planning the smuggling of cocaine that had already been seized on November 22, 2020, eight days before the messages?
The Special State Prosecutor’s Office had no answer to this question. In response to inquiries from Television E, neither the High Court nor the Supreme Court commented, even though the latter extended Mijajlović’s detention on the basis of this order.
LODEN: VIOLATION OF THE PRINCIPLE OF A FAIR TRIAL
Renowned German lawyer Christian Loden, an expert in international criminal law and human rights, stated in an exclusive interview for Television E that possible manipulation of prosecutorial evidence, and the confirmation of indictments on that basis, seriously undermines the fairness of the trial.
- If the integrity of data cannot be ensured and verified, and courts allow indictments to be filed or even sentence people to long prison terms on such a basis, then this must be regarded as a deliberate violation of the principle of a fair trial - Loden assesses.
The lawyer emphasizes that the Montenegrin judiciary must face consequences if manipulative practices are proven - whether by prosecutors who fabricate indictments using simulated Sky messages or by judges who confirm such indictments without any verification.
- This must not remain without consequences for the involved individuals, such as prosecutors and judges - Loden concludes in his interview with Television E.
SILENCE OF THE STATE
The top levels of the Montenegrin judiciary have so far not reacted to the investigation by the Television E journalistic team, which deepens suspicions of conscious concealment of abuses in official conduct.
Because if, in addition to the scandalous „time travel“ error, evidence of manipulation involving the same 12 sentences in three indictments is added, then the state’s silence may be interpreted as a sign that the claws of daily politics and the settling of scores with political opponents have tightly gripped certain individuals within the prosecution or the courts.