Milan Isakov and Miloš Vešović, the inspectors of the Anti-Drug Department of the Belgrade Police, accused of abuse of official position, presented their defense before the High Court in Belgrade. The inspectors denied the guilt they were charged with and pointed out that the entire procedure was set up as revenge for the "Jovanjica" case. Their colleague Miloš Knežević declared that he and his colleagues were not guilty and said that he did not have the strength to speak further because he had spent the previous 30 hours on the field. However, during the court hearing, evidence of illegal wiretapping and a whole conspiracy against the police officers who arrested Predrag Koluvija in November 2019, according to the indictment of the owner of the largest drug factory - skunk - in Europe, flashed before the public.
"It must be urgently determined who dared to eavesdrop on police officers fighting against drugs, contrary to the Constitution and the Law. But it must also be determined who in the Prosecutor's Office is responsible for trying to introduce the illegal wiretapping as evidence against the Fourth Department inspector. With today's decision, the court confirmed that the prosecution tried to introduce 42 conversations as evidence, and all 42 conversations were the result of illegal wiretapping", was the first thing that lawyer Marko Drašković from the "Tomanović" law office, representing the inspector, told journalists after leaving the courtroom. Isakov and Vešović.
Previously, judge Milan Grkinić decided to exclude such illegal evidence from the court material and thereby actually confirmed the dirty work of the police and the prosecution. It is about more than one hundred files, including 42 wiretapped telephone conversations of inspectors of the Fourth Department, which were recorded by the Department of Internal Control of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Serbia after the judge's order to stop special evidentiary actions, and the Higher Public Prosecutor's Office in Belgrade included them in the evidence in the proceedings against the policemen.
WHO WILL BE RESPONSIBLE FOR ILLEGAL WEARING OF THE INSPECTOR?
Milan Isakov, Miloš Vešović and Miloš Knežević, inspectors of the Fourth Department of the Belgrade Police for the fight against drugs, are accused of abusing the victims BH and MM on September 28, 2022, after they met to return the three hookahs that were given to Isakov by the victims rented for 13000 dinars. The inspectors allegedly handcuffed the victims and beat them.
Who decided to illegally eavesdrop on police officers fighting drug dealers? Specific names and surnames remain a secret for now. Otherwise, it is a criminal act, and police officers and prosecutors who collect and plant illegal evidence should be held accountable for it. Let us remind you that the Department of Internal Control reports directly to the Minister of Police, while the head of the Higher Public Prosecutor's Office in Belgrade, which tried to use the illegally wiretapped conversations as evidence, is prosecutor Nenad Stefanović.
Illegal eavesdropping could have occurred during the period of the strongest and daily persecution of inspectors, when the MUP was headed by Aleksandar Vulin or Bratislav Gašić, who succeeded him in October 2022. At the time of the discovery of "Jovanjica", Gašić was the director of the BIA, and it was he, while marijuana was still flourishing, who communicated with the owner of "Jovanjica", Predrag Koluvija, accused of organized crime. Gasic is now the Minister of Defense. When it comes to Vulin, in front of the cameras, as one of the ministers in the Government of Serbia, he visited the greenhouses on "Jovanjica" and showed the citizens how radishes and carrots grow there. After that, Vulin advanced further, becoming the minister of the military, the minister of police and arresting inspectors who fight against drugs, and then he managed the BIA and is now the vice president of the Government of Serbia.
The "Jovanjica" scandal has been rocking the Serbian public for five years. Ever since the discovery of 1,6 tons of marijuana and skunk on the property near Stara Pazova, this case of the fight against organized crime has been covered up. However, it not only did not stop growing, but grew into a corruption scandal of unfathomable proportions. Among those arrested are secret service agents - members of the Security and Information Agency and the police, and a member of the Military Intelligence Agency is still being sought.
INSTEAD OF THE ORDER OF INSPECTORS "AWARDED" ACCUSED BENCH
The indictment against Inspector Milan Isakov, with which he is now being charged, was brought a few hours after he testified before the Special Court in the proceedings for ""Jovanjica. "The allegations of the Prosecutor's Office are not correct," said Isakov, presenting his defense before the judge. "I did not beat or torture anyone, but I did participate in the discovery of the largest drug plantation - marijuana and skunk - in Europe and I did not agree, as I was asked, to tell falsehoods against Inspector Slobodan Milenkovic (Milenkovic was the head of the Fourth Department who arrested Koluvia - first. aut.).”
Isakov continued: "The whole public could see our faces when we, as colleagues and escorts of our then boss Slobodan Milenkovic, went with him to the Palace of Justice, when they tried to mount a trial against him. I didn't beat anyone, but I did ask for a debt of 13 thousand dinars to be returned - for me and my family, that's a lot of money. I asked to see the allegedly injured person to return my money, in the middle of the day, at noon, and he insisted that it be in the evening. You can see that from the messages we exchanged. We have known each other privately for a long time, so it is stupid that I took out my police badge to introduce myself to him. Our faces were exposed for weeks to a media campaign and persecution because we discovered 'Jovanjica' and guarded our head of the Fourth Department, Inspector Milenkovic, and I believe that the alleged victim thought that he did not have to return the money he owed me, because I had already been publicly branded and vulnerable. (…) You can see that this procedure is revenge, staged. As the allegedly injured party was seriously injured, and he went out and had fun for five days, then only five days after meeting me he went to the Emergency Center and there they did not diagnose him with serious physical injuries, but 17 days later he obtained medical documentation about serious injuries. "
Inspector Miloš Vešović also presented his defense before the court: "I did not abuse or beat anyone, but I did take part in exposing the 'Jovanjica 2' case, as well as the fact that part of the state leadership was involved in organized drug crime." Well, I didn't get a medal or praise for that, but I did receive threats and this set-up case and process. (…) We endured blackmail after 'Jovanjica'. Everyone knew our faces because we stood next to our boss Slobodan Milenkovic in front of the cameras and went with him to the Palace of Justice. We received non-stop information that something was being prepared for us, that we were being 'packed' and that we were being eavesdropped. Isn't it illogical for you, judge, that right then, in that period, in such an atmosphere, we go around the city and beat someone?"
As a reminder, police officers Milan Isakov and Miloš Knežević spent a month in custody in the fall of 2022. While they were in CZ, the Belgrade district prison, there was a media frenzy against them outside, and they were threatened behind bars. Inspector Miloš Vešović was the last to be arrested. In the courtroom, he talked about a strange encounter he had two days before he was arrested: "I was sitting in a cafe with my wife and brother, then two people enter, I don't recognize them, they look at me menacingly, they walk, then they stop in front of me, then like going to the toilet twice in a few minutes. It turned out that they were allegedly injured."
THE PROSECUTOR, PINK NAILS AND INVISIBLE TABLOID JOURNALISTS
photo: j. dawn...and prosecutor Danijela Kljajić
During the questioning of the accused, prosecutor Danijela Kljajić passionately appeared and asked questions to the inspectors, so it seemed that she herself was in the position of the injured party. However, she had little interest in the hookah case and the two guys who were named as injured parties in the process. With bleached hair and bright pink nails, she waved her hand insisting on only one question: "How many police officers, inspectors, participated in the discovery of 'Jovanjica' and the arrest of Koluvija?" I demand the exact number", prosecutor Kljajić was emphatic.
Everything turned into a general discussion for a few minutes. The lawyer of the defendants, Drašković, said: "Prosecutor, why are you interested in 'Jovanjica'?"
The judge persistently addressed the accused: "You are not obliged to answer all the questions."
Prosecutor Kljajić continued to insist. She did not get the correct answer. But immediately after the trial, the public received the text of the Republika RS portal, which works as part of the Srpski Telegraf tabloid, as the first report from the hearing. The journalists of that tabloid were not even in the courtroom, unless they are invisible, but the persecution of the police continued, as is evident when you look at the title of the text:
"Shameful defense of Senta's beating police officers: They tied up, tied up and robbed the boys, and now they are complaining that they were set up because of politics and 'Jovanjica'." By the way, there is a lot of speculation about that portal and tabloid that they get their information from the top of VJT in Belgrade.
THE PROSECUTOR STEVANČEVIĆ HAS NO ONE TO HEAR
And while prosecutor Kljajić presents herself as being in charge of the case, the original investigation was led by another prosecutor - Jelena Stevančević. Prosecutor Stevančević led the investigation into the inspectors of the Fourth Department and the abuse of official position due to three hookahs and 13 thousand dinars for almost a year. She refused to accuse the inspectors before the High Prosecutor's Office and believed that the whole case should be forwarded to a lower instance and to one of the Basic Prosecutor's Offices.
The head of the Prosecutor's Office, Nenad Stefanović, insisted that they be charged at a higher instance, and when the prosecutor, Stevančević, continued to defy him, insisting on the application of the law, the case was promptly taken away from her while she was on vacation. This was not the end of her career's troubles. Soon, instead of a case, she was transferred to a lower level - the Basic Prosecutor's Office, since she did not pass the competition for the permanent selection of prosecutors in the Belgrade Prosecutor's Office. By the way, when Stevančević was not selected in the competition, there was a rebellion among her colleagues because she is considered a prosecutor who strictly, almost stubbornly, adheres to the law. At the beginning of this year, the research portal Byrne also wrote about all of this, for which the plaintiff gave an interview about the entire period.
Judge Grkinić refused to hear prosecutor Jelena Stevančević in the courtroom as a witness in the proceedings against the inspector, evaluating the proposal for her testimony as "superfluous". In the same way, the judge also rejected the proposal to hear inspectors Slobodan Milenkovic and Dusan Mitić as witnesses.
ANTI-DRUG INSPECTORS ON THE BLACK LIST
From the moment of the arrest of Predrag Koluvija and the exposure of "Jovanjica", the entire group of inspectors who participated in that case have been persecuted for almost five years. They were taken to the polygraph, they endured a strong media campaign for years, they were labeled as criminals and drug dealers by various people, from the top of the state to a constellation of obscure characters who appear everywhere - from podcasts on the Internet to television with national frequencies. They were replaced and transferred, some were literally kicked out of the Fourth Ward.
They are illegally monitored and eavesdropped on by the BIA and MUP, and are investigated non-stop by the Internal Control and Prosecutor's Office Sector. They are followed even when they are with children and it is published in the tabloids. They are threatened, blackmailed and interrogated by prosecutors who hold a mug with the BIA logo while questioning them about their sources, offering them bribes, arresting them, detaining them, persecuting them, negotiating with their informants, and setting up trials against them... Finally, there is information that for the murder of the former head of the Department for the fight against drugs of the Belgrade police, Slobodan Milenkovć, and the former chief of operations of that department, Dušan Mitić, was paid one million euros. For a year now, the investigation into who is following them and who is plotting evil against them has been ongoing, and the inspectors are provided by members of the Special Anti-Terrorist Unit.
