Montenegro’s Special State Prosecutor’s Office has filed an indictment charging former Chief Special Prosecutor Milivoje Katnic and prosecutor Sasa Cadjenovic with abuse of office and unlawful influence, it announced on Tuesday.
The charges relate to an alleged joint decision by the two prosecutors to reach an agreement with the legal representative of Joseph Assad, a US citizen and former CIA officer, to testify favourably for the prosecution in the so-called ‘coup plot’ case.
The coup plot case concerned an alleged Russian-backed scheme to overthrow Montenegro’s pro-Western government around elections in 2016. Assad was under suspicion of involvement in the case, but never charged, and rejected the allegations as false.
The prosecutors in the case against Katnic and Cadjenovic allege that it was agreed for Assad to testify, in a manner requested by the two men, in the coup plot trial of defendants Andrija Mandic and Milan Knezevic and other individuals – including two Russian intelligence agents – at the Higher Court in Podgorica.
At the time, Mandic and Knezevic were leaders of the opposition Democratic Front political alliance.
The alleged agreement stipulated that in exchange for the testimony, Assad would not be arrested or charged.
The Special State Prosecutor’s Office claimed that it was agreed that Assad would “testify in a manner requested by [Katnic and Cadjenovic] in proceedings before the Higher Court in Podgorica, and confirm the allegations in the indictment, in exchange for the withdrawal of national and international warrants, avoidance of detention, and the discontinuation of criminal proceedings against him”.
A US-based media relations company representing Assad did not respond to BIRN’s queries about the new allegations by the time of publication of this article.
In the coup plot case, defendants were accused of attempting to overthrow Montenegro’s government by force in 2016 – allegedly to prevent the country joining NATO. They were initially convicted.
However, after a retrial that followed a change of government, they were all acquitted. The Appeals Court in Podgorica last month upheld the acquittal verdict.