Samir KajosevicPodgoricaBIRNDecember 9, 202212:32Sasa Cadjenovic was arrested on Friday on the orders of the Special State Prosecutor’s Office for alleged abuse of office and for creating a criminal organization.
Deputy Special State Prosecutor Sasa Cadjenovic, at a press conference. Photo: PR Centar
Montenegrin Special State Prosecutor Sasa Cadjenovic was arrested on Friday on the orders of the Special State Prosecutor’s Office for alleged abuse of office and for creating a criminal organization.
“Cadjenovic is suspected of several criminal offences of abuse of office and creating a criminal organization during the period from mid-2020 to 2022. He was arrested this morning and the Special State Prosecution will inform the public of details during the investigation,” Special State Prosecutor’s Office spokesperson Vukas Radonjic said.
Since May 2020, Cadjenovic was Deputy Special State Prosecutor at the time when the office was led by Milivoje Katnic. Katnic retired on February 17, and a new Special State Prosecutor Vladimir Novovic was appointed on March 18.
The office was unpopular with the former opposition, which accused it of ties with criminal groups and with the then ruling Democratic Party of Socialists, DPS.
It was criticized especially for securing guilty verdicts for 13 people – including two leaders of then opposition Democratic Front, Andrija Mandic and Milan Knezevic – for plotting to overthrow the then DPS-led government in 2016.
In a first-instance verdict in May 2019, the Higher Court sentenced the 13 people, including Mandic, Knezevic, two Russian military intelligence officers and eight Serbs, to up to 15 years in prison for staging an attempted coup.
However, on February 5, 2021, the Appeal Court annulled the verdicts, asking the Higher Court to repeat the trial that former opposition leaders claimed had been politically led. On November 29, the Higher Court called on the Special State Prosecution to deliver a new indictment within 15 days.
Earlier, on November 20, one of the Democratic Front leaders, Knezevic, accused Cadjenovic of cooperation with criminal gangs in the country.
“Due to abuses of office and obvious connections with organized criminal gangs, Cadjenovic long ago deserved to have an indictment brought against him and to serve a sentence in prison. Ha cannot act like a prosecutor anymore,” Knezevic told Adria television.
On August 11, the Special State Prosecution filed an indictment against a senior police officer, Petar Lazovic, for ties to the notorious Kavac gang of Kotor, alleging he provided them official protection for their drug, arms and tobacco smuggling.
Citing a report by the European police agency EUROPOL to the Montenegrin government, media on May 3 published Lazovics SKY app communication transcripts with one of the Kavac leaders, Radoje Zvicer.
On May 5, the State Prosecution confirmed that EUROPOL had sent transcripts of the encrypted messages to the Montenegrin prosecution last July.
But the investigation into the two men was closed. At the time deputy Special State Prosecutor Cadjenovic assessed there are no elements of a crime, while Katnic maintained Lazovic had been informing the police about Kavac drug gang operations.
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