While presenting his defence, Bratislav Dikic, a former member of the Serbian Gendarmerie, spoke for more than three hours yesterday in the High Court in Podgorica, with short breaks.
For many Montenegrin citizens, this was a real surprise given that some media, as well as politicians, particularly Democratic Front officials, earlier claimed that the accused for terrorism attempt could barely speak, ie that he spoke indistinctly because of the surgery of removing his tongue root.
This statement was made by Dikic’s brother Dragan in October last year for the Belgrade-based Srbija Danas (Serbia Today) media outlet.
“It is scandalous to accuse him of organising a terrorist operation and arresting Djukanovic by telephone… His health condition, plus the fact that three years ago he had his tongue root removed at the Military Medical Academy and that he can barely speak show that the whole story was fabricated,” Dikic’s brother Dragan said.
DF leader Andrija Mandic agreed with him. In the same article, he was cited as saying that “it was scandalous to accuse a man who does not have tongue of organising a coup in Montenegro”.
In addition, at the front page of Serbian Telegraf (Telegraph) it was announced last year that Dikic’s tongue was ‘cut off’ and that he could not speak.
Yesterday, whoever watched the trial could hear that Bratislav Dikic spoke very clearly, defending himself against the charges of terrorist attempt and the assassination of former PM Milo Djukanovic, providing the best evidence that pieces of information constantly published by certain media are inaccurate.
