A former member of the Ravna Gora movement, Mirko Pajo Velimirovic, who made a plea bargain with the Special Prosecutor’s Office, has said that special state prosecutor Milivoje Katnic abused his confession. This is announced by Democratic Front (DF) at today’s press conference. DF representatives claim they have stamped evidence on it.
DF representative Predrag Bulatovic said that yesterday the political alliance had received Velimirovic’s statement made on 16 January 2017, with his original signature in which he claims that he was misused by the Special Prosecutor’s Office.
“After I had received the judgment of 7 December 2016 and read it carefully, I realised that I was abused in a certain way by the Special Prosecutor’s Office for the purpose known only to that authority. I do not want to cause suffering, loss of freedom or conviction of anyone by false testimony. I want to ease my conscience presenting the only truth on October 2016. The formulation of my alleged confession that is mentioned in the judgment was made by Katnic himself and I did not read it, I just signed it,” Velimirovic allegedly said.
He claims he was blackmailed by freedom of 17 people who trusted him.
“When I signed the confession, my only intention was to save 17 people from being imprisoned after I invited them to the rally to express their dissatisfaction exclusively by peaceful means. None of us had any weapons. Since I was blackmailed by freedom of people who trusted me I would accept to sign anything,” Velimirovic said.
He also said he did not know Bratislava Dikic.
“This confirms that the case against DF was politically fabricated. As far as DF is concerned, this process is legally completed. It is aimed at weakening DF in order for DPS and Milo Djukanovic to stay in power,” said Bulatovic.
As a reminder, Velimirovic’s testimony caused great public attention. This is his statement concerning DF politicians:
“Aleksandar Sindjelic told me that there are powerful people from Montenegro and from abroad who are behind everything. I insisted that he should say who they were, so he a bit nervously replied that they were DF politicians,” Velimirovic said in his testimony.
The High Court accepted the plea agreement that Mirko Velimirovic made with the Special Prosecutor’s Office. He admitted being a member of a criminal organisation that planned to cause chaos in Montenegro on election day, 16 October.
According to the plea bargain, Velimirovic got a year suspended sentence, or to spend six months in prison if he commits a crime during that period.
