The trial to Miroslav Rakocevic and Radul Dozic was postponed again in the Basic Court in Bijelo Polje yesterday due to the defendants’ lawyers, Dnevne Novine writes. Rakocevic and Dozic are accused of brutally beating Budva businessman Dragan Becirovic in January 2008 in Kolasin.
According to the indictment against Rakocevic and Dozic, they are charged with imposing serious bodily injuries and violent behaviour. This is the second time that the hearing for the incident, which happened nine years ago, is postponed because of the defence attorneys. According to the attorney of the plaintiff (Becirovic family) Rajko Danilovic, the defence is deliberately doing that to wait for the statute of limitation period to run out.
The attorneys said they were out of country, which is why they failed to appear before the court yesterday. However, judge Ivan Admaovic did not accept their justifications and fined them €1,000 each. He also left the possibility for defence attorneys to prove that were out of the country yesterday.
The statute of limitation period for this case runs out in January. After that, the charges shall be dismissed according to law.
Dragan Becirovic, the then CEO of Bepler&Jacobson, was assaulted on 4 January 2008 while returning with friends from the Jezerine ski resort near Kolasin.
Due to suspicion that they had committed the attack, the police searched for days for Dozic, Strugar and Rakocevic, who were later arrested in Belgrade. Although numerous evidence and testimonies of witnesses of brutal beatings were collected, the prosecutor in Kolasin Vojislav Grujicic suspended criminal prosecution.
Seven years later, the High State Prosecutor’s Office requested the case files from Kolasin Basic Prosecutor’s Office, trying to find out through the investigation of this case whether the incident could be linked to the individuals responsible for Becirovic’s murder in April 2011 in Budva.
Marko Saranovic was sentenced to 14 years in prison for the murder of Becirovic.
