Sasa Cadjenovic Arrested: Montenegro Special State Prosecutor Arrested for Abuse of Office
Per Balkan Insights, Sasa Cadjenovic has been Deputy Special State Prosecutor since May 2020. He was in office led by Milivoje Katnic.
Following Katnic’s retirement on February 17, Vladimir Novovic took charge as the new Special State Prosecutor on March 18.
The former opposition disliked the office and alleged its ties with criminal groups and the Democratic Party of Socialists, DPS, which was ruling at the time.
Mainly, they criticized the office for securing guilty verdicts for 13 people. It included two leaders of the Democratic Front, Milan Knezevic, and Andrija Mandic, for conspiring to overthrow the ruling government in 2016.
First, in May 2019, the Higher Court sentenced 13 people, including Knezevic Mandic, Russian military intelligence officers, and eight Serbs, to up to 15 years in jail for staging an attempted coup.
However, in February 2021, the Appeal Court nullified the verdict, asking the Higher Court to repeat the trial, which former opposition leaders accused to had been politically led.
On November 20, a Democratic Front Leader, Knezevic, accused Sasa Cadjenovic of cooperating with criminal gangs in the country.
He stated that Cadjenovic deserved to have an indictment brought against him long ago and to serve a sentence in prison. “He cannot act like a prosecutor anymore,” Knezevic told Adria television.
On November 29, the Higher Court asked the Special State Prosecution to deliver a new indictment within 15 days.
