WORLD NEWS FOR MONTENEGRO DIASPORA
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AUTHOR: M.J.
The director of the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption (ASK), Jelena Perović, was released this evening to defend herself, and this decision was made after a hearing by the investigating judge of the High Court, Suzana Mugoša.
Marija Raković, Public Relations Adviser of the High Court, informed Pobjeda that Perović's passport was confiscated, he was forbidden to leave the apartment and to meet with certain persons.
The proposal of the Special State Prosecutor's Office to order her detention was rejected. According to Perović, certain surveillance measures were imposed: the ban on leaving the apartment, the ban on access and meetings with certain persons, and confiscation of the travel document - she told us.
On Wednesday, Perović was arrested on suspicion of abusing her position, and yesterday she was brought in for questioning by special prosecutor Maja Janković, who ordered her to be detained for up to 72 hours. As pointed out by her defense attorney, lawyer Nikola Martinović, Perović answered all the questions of prosecutor Janković during the hearing and completely denied guilt.
The spokesman and prosecutor of the Special State Prosecutor's Office, Vukas Radonjić, announced yesterday that evidence, data and information collected in the investigation show grounds for suspicion that Perović, as an official and public official, exceeded the limits of her official authority from August 2020 to February 2024. and thus obtained a property benefit of over 60,000 euros for herself and others.
She did this, as he stated, because, contrary to the Law on Salaries of Employees in the Public Sector, she made decisions by which she increased her salary based on overtime - that is, for the variable part of her salary and decisions by which she determined compensation for membership in certain work groups which she herself educated, although the making of those decisions is exclusively within the competence of the Council of the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption as the body that elects the director of the Agency.
That is, because, in the period from January to July last year, it made temporary decisions establishing the right to compensation for the president and members of the Council of the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption, even though the adoption of such decisions is the exclusive competence of the Parliament of Montenegro, which elects the members of the Council of the Agency, so thus obtained a financial benefit for herself and others in the total amount of over 60,000.00 euros - pointed out Radonjić.
Since the SDT did not previously specify what Perović was charged with, her defense attorney Martinović assessed that she was arrested because the SDT believes that she used the official vehicle more than she should have.
They didn't say she abused her position for this or that. During the search, they confiscated the warrants, took pictures of the mileage on the vehicle and confiscated documents that had already been handed over to the prosecutor's office, and related to kilometers traveled or trips - Martinović previously told Pobjeda.
However, Radonjić later said that the subject of the initiated proceedings was not the possible misuse of an official vehicle, but that a separate case had been formed about it.
A special criminal case has been established in the Special State Prosecutor's Office, based on the criminal report of the Non-Governmental Organization, "Network for the Affirmation of the Non-Governmental Sector", and the investigation is ongoing - pointed out Radonjić.
The focus of the SDT, as the prosecutor emphasized, is on the irregularities found during the inspection of the Budget Inspection of the Ministry of Finance, which submitted the official documents to the Special State Prosecutor's Office after the inspection.
Radonjić points out that in the latest investigative procedure against the suspect, the official documentation of the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption will be valued and confiscated by the police during the search of the Agency's headquarters, but also submitted by the Agency at the request of the Special State Prosecutor's Office, in order to establish the basis of suspicion as to whether the composition of the extended criminal offense also includes other illegal actions of the suspect, apart from those for which the proceedings were initiated.
Martinović: There are documents and results for everything
Lawyer Nikola Martnović said tonight that there are documents and results for everything in KAS.
Jelena Perović will face more legal battles to prove what she claims. This is not about any fictitious and non-existent jobs, because there are documents and results for everything that was done in the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption (ASK), he said.
Perović, she adds, gave a detailed statement about every circumstance that was mentioned in the order to conduct the investigation.
She made a statement about every circumstance and every circumstance about the documents. After such a long testimony, everyone in the room understood that this was a different interpretation of the law. No one contested the credibility of the text prepared in the KAS - Martinović pointed out in a statement to the media.
Judge Suzana Mugoša, as he pointed out, decided that there was no need for her to be in custody, but ordered the measure of surveillance, the confiscation of her passport, and that she is not to meet with persons who may be questioned - that is, that she is at a distance of 100 meters.
It is a fair and reasonable measure - said Martinović.
