Today, the trial continued before the Basic Court in Podgorica for the case of extortion of testimony by serious violence against the victim Benjamin Mugo\u0161 by police inspector Dalibor Ljeko\u010devi\u0107, during which two witnesses, Ljubi\u0161a Strikovi\u0107 and Nemanja Vujo\u0161evi\u0107 were heard. At the time of the critical event, both were police inspectors of the Criminal Police Station for the Suppression of Blood Offenses and Domestic Violence in the Podgorica Security Center. The third witness – Radoman Vuja\u010di\u0107, as well as the defendant, Ljeko\u010devi\u0107, did not appear at the hearing.<\/p>\n
We remind you that, on May 27, 2020, Benjamin Mugo\u0161a was detained at the Podgorica Security Center as a suspect for “bombing attacks” related to the activation of an explosive device near a catering facility in Podgorica, as well as another one that was activated near the house of the former police chief functionary. The very next day, May 28, 2020, Mugo\u0161a reported allegations of torture.<\/p>\n
The first witness – Ljubi\u0161a Strikovi\u0107 stated that on that day related to the critical event, they held a meeting in the morning at the police station, where they agreed on an action regarding the search and observation of locations where persons of security interest are staying. That day, they had to search several locations, but he does not remember which locations and whether they had a search warrant or were waiting for it. As he states, the planned searches included the search of Benjamin Mugo\u0161a’s house, but he could not say whether Dalibor Ljeko\u010devi\u0107 was conducting an observation or a search at Mugo\u0161a’s address. The record of the search does not state who performed the observation, nor does anyone keep records of who is sent for observation on a specific day. On May 27, he was at his workplace and met Ljeko\u010devi\u0107 only during the morning meeting and later in the City kvart during the observation of an apartment. Strikovi\u0107 stated that he did not see Benjamin Mugo\u0161a in the police station, nor that he knew anything about the procedure that was carried out against him, to which Mugo\u0161a stated that he did see the witness Strikovi\u0107, but that he was not allowed to contact him. Strikovi\u0107 added that no one is addressed as “boss” in their circles and that it cannot be Ljeko\u010devi\u0107 in particular because they all have the same status, except for Kora\u0107, who was in charge of them.<\/p>\n
The second witness – Nemanja Vujo\u0161evi\u0107, who is currently suspended due to the ongoing proceedings related to allegations of torture, pointed out that on the critical day, due to the lack of police personnel, several police services helped each other. He states that the first address he searched was Benjamin Mugo\u0161a’s house in Donja Gorica and that he is not sure whether Dalibor Ljeko\u010devi\u0107 attended it, but he thinks he did. After they found out that Mugo\u0161a now lives at another address, Vujo\u0161evi\u0107 returned to the police station to get a search warrant, after which he was at that address around 9 am. There, they found Mugo\u0161a, who was correct, so the search took place without any problems, with the presence of his lawyer, Damir Leki\u0107. He stated that he thought he and his colleagues had tactical vests and did not have phantom vests. However, the first witness stated that Ljeko\u010devi\u0107 was not wearing a tactical vest while searching the apartment in the City kvart.<\/p>\n
Vujo\u0161evi\u0107 continued his presentation by saying that Ljeko\u010devi\u0107 did not attend the search of Benjamin Mugo\u0161a’s new address in Zabjelo. After bringing Mugo\u0161a to the police station around 10:20 a.m., they then continued with another task in Zagori\u010d, where, according to Vujo\u0161evi\u0107, Dalibor Ljeko\u010devi\u0107 was observing. The search at that location lasted a long time, until 4 – 5 p.m. However, Vujo\u0161evi\u0107 also claims that, when it comes to the observation process, the minutes do not include who are the persons who do it, nor are records of the distribution of the Police Directorate officials daily. He added that he did not meet Ljeko\u010devi\u0107 at the police station on a critical day or know his whereabouts after the search in Zagori\u010d. He also stated that they do not call each other by the nickname “boss”, except that they sometimes call Sr\u0111an Kora\u0107 that way, who is their superior. The prosecutor asked who Dalibor Ljeko\u010devi\u0107 was with at the location during the observation, to which the witness Vujo\u0161evi\u0107 replied that he did not remember and that he saw him in an official vehicle with tinted windows (he saw him through the driver’s window while passing by).<\/p>\n
The next hearing is scheduled for April 11, 2024, at 11 a.m., when police inspector Ivan Peruni\u010di\u0107 will be heard as a witness. The defendant Ljeko\u010devi\u0107’s defense counsel, proposes to obtain the records from the search of the house in Zagori\u010d for the next hearing and to question Peruni\u010di\u0107, who was in the car with the witness Nemanja Vujo\u0161evi\u0107 during that action.<\/p>\n
The Civic Alliance will continue to actively monitor this and other trials for torture cases, as part of the project “No impunity for violation and breach of human rights in Montenegro”, with the support of the EU Delegation in Montenegro and co-financing by the Ministry of Public Administration.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Today, the trial continued before the Basic Court in Podgorica for the case of extortion of testimony by serious violence against the victim Benjamin Mugo\u0161 by police inspector Dalibor Ljeko\u010devi\u0107, during which two witnesses, Ljubi\u0161a Strikovi\u0107 and Nemanja Vujo\u0161evi\u0107 were heard. At the time of the critical event, both were police inspectors of the Criminal […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":747,"featured_media":36215,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[711],"tags":[],"tip":[],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gamn.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42152"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gamn.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gamn.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gamn.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/747"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gamn.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42152"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gamn.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42152\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42153,"href":"https:\/\/gamn.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42152\/revisions\/42153"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gamn.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gamn.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gamn.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gamn.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42152"},{"taxonomy":"tip","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gamn.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tip?post=42152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}