In the next few days it is to be known whether Velimirovic will be granted cooperative witness status, after the High Court in Podgorica decides on that matter.
Thus, Dnevne Novine newspaper’s reporting has been confirmed.
According to investigation order, it could be guessed that Velimirovic would get this status. The order repeatedly states that Velimirovic “contributed to disclosing the very criminal organisation” and “identifying other organisation members”, although his objectives were illegal.
Velimirovic was supposed to conduct violence against certain people, purchase and store means for the commission of crimes, weapons and ammunition, to keep uniforms, which were supposed to be used during the commission of offenses and to provide accommodation for other organisation members and storage room for the weapons and equipment. In addition, he was responsible for forwarding messages from organises that he received from the suspect Aleksandar Sindjelic.
He accepted the plan and then reported it
Having accepted this plan, Velimirovic took €30,000 for buying and transporting 50 automatic rifles and three boxes of ammunition to Montenegro that should be stored in a rented house in Podgorica. This weapon is said to have been intended to be given to so far unidentified persons who were supposed to be sent by Eduard Shirkorov, one of the Russian organisers. Those persons were supposed to come on election day and break into the Parliament disguised as police officers “along with DF protesters and arrest Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic”.
Velimirovic reported all this to the police.
Velimirovic is not the only one
Velimirovic is not the only one who is to be granted cooperative witness status in this case. In fact, last week Sindjelic, one of the key protagonists of the failed attack, agreed granting this status with the Special Prosecutor’s Office. For the time being it is not known whether someone else would be freed in exchange for the disclosing the coup details.
According to the order, Sindjelic was responsible for recruiting other members of the organisation, transferring money between the organisers and members of the group, providing weapons, phones, buying police equipment, uniforms, shields, batons, body armours, tear gas, gas masks and other equipment that would be used by the group members during the attack on the Parliament.
Russians organizers
The latest prosecutor’s office’s document states that in addition to Shirokov, the Russian national Vladimir Nikolaevich Popov has also been mentioned as an organiser of the criminal group. They are suspected of organising the criminal group at the end of September 2016 in the territory of Montenegro, Serbia and Russia, collecting funds and issuing orders to carry out an “undetermined number of criminal acts of terrorism and the murder of highest ranking representatives of Montenegro.”
In addition to the persons that are unidentified so far, the accused members of the group are: Aleksandar Sasa Sindjelic, Bratislav Dikic, Predrag Bogicevic, Nemanja Ristic, Milos Jovanovic, Mirko Velimirovic, Kristina Hristic, Branka Milic, Milan Dusic, Dragan Maksic, Srboljub Djordjevic, Aleksandar Curovic, Aleksandar Aleksic, Nikola Djuric, Sinisa Cetkovic, Dejan Stanojevic, Milos Acimovic, Ivica Matic and Perica Andric.
