Scandal Tunnel in Montenegro: The first examinations are already here

Investigators are due to receive the first preliminary results of forensic analysis of traces seized during an inspection of the High Court warehouse in Montenegro, the tunnel leading to it and the apartment from which the theft was carried out, including analyses of biological traces of mafia miners, Vesti has learned unofficially.

Sources from the investigation say this will help them confirm the identities of the six suspects involved in digging the tunnel and preparing the infiltration site with the help of international legal assistance. At the same time, police inspectors are examining hundreds of hours of surveillance footage to determine exactly whether they also met someone on the days they were preparing to break into the room where evidence for the most serious criminal offenses is stored.

"Every day new warrants are issued for the seizure of surveillance footage throughout Podgorica," said one of the interlocutors. The same source said that the decision by D. П. to refuse to be polygraphed during questioning in the court warehouse break-in case has sent the investigation in yet another direction.

"Vesti" reported yesterday, citing several sources, that this close associate of Supreme Court President Boris Savich refused to answer questions about the court warehouse in front of a police polygraph examiner, which raised immediate suspicion among investigators. As explained, although there is no legal way to force someone to do this, and despite the fact that lie detector results are not evidence in court, it is a telling fact for investigators. For that reason, and because of suspicions that the thieves had assistants inside the courthouse, one line of investigation is focusing on checking Superior Court officials who were or may have been in the vault.

According to The West, Savich told prosecutor Mark Mugosha about who had visited the vault over the past few months. He allegedly told Mugosha that due to the illness of the officer in charge of the court documents and evidence archive, the key to the room was in his possession but he also gave it to colleagues who had to go down to the vault to collect case documents. Presumably they all have to explain to the prosecutor what they took from the vault, when and at whose direction. At the same time, a detailed list of documents and material evidence is conducted in this room to determine what is missing.

Since September 12, the High Court in Podgorica has not responded to Vesti's questions - when was the last time a list of the storage room was drawn up, and what, according to that list, is stored in that room. They also do not answer the question of how many cases are stored in the vault, but also the question of how many Superior Court employees have keys to the doors through which the vault can be accessed.

A lawyer Željko Ђukanović told The Herald two days ago that it is impossible to say with certainty what evidence was stolen in the theft without a commission report on the evidence that was in that room before the theft.

In the first hours, while the examination of the broken vault and the listing of documents and evidence continued, it was discovered that the thieves had entered the vault through an underground passage, about 30 meters long, that ran from the basement apartment at 12 Negushskaya Street to the court vault. In the following days, a van used by the mafia miners was found, followed by an apartment on Zabjelu that served as their base. Oversight authorities say at least six people participated in the unusual mob action and that 19 firearms were stolen from the courthouse...

Two days before Justice Minister Marko Kovacs announced on Sept. 14 how many weapons were missing, Savic told reporters that virtually nothing was missing from evidence. On the same day, September 12, Montenegrin police chief Nikola Terzic tried to dispute this statement, saying that he wished Savic was right, but that he was afraid the truth would be different.

After the inspection of the vault, tunnel and apartments - on Negušska 12 and on Zabjelu, interrogations began at the Podgorica Main State Prosecutor's Office. The head of this prosecutor's office, Prosecutor Dusko Milanovic, told Vesti at the time that everyone who has or may have information about the break-in of the vault of the Podgorica High Court will testify. Among the first to be questioned was the owner of the basement on Negushska Street, who explained to the prosecutor how the mafia miners got to her.

She also told them that the intermediary was a Podgori real estateagency, whose agents brought a woman who introduced herself as a citizen of a neighboring country planning to open a wedding dress salon. Supposedly, after the owner of the premises offered to organize the basement, the fictitious tenant said it was more suitable for her to remodel it as she chose. She paid two rents in advance that day and the amount, according to Vestia, amounted to €2,800.

The staff of this real estateagency also appeared in front of Prosecutor Mugosha, who also explained that they had no information about their new client and it was established that she had provided them with a fake ID. Mugoša took statements from several employees of the Superior Court in Podgorica, and several of them agreed to polygraph testing. Everyone who agreed passed a polygraph.