WORLD NEWS FOR MONTENEGRO DIASPORA
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Police officer Petar Knežević, who was the assistant commander of the Anti-Terrorist Unit and one of the commanders of the brutal police violence against citizens on September 5, 2021 in Cetinje, as Pobjeda was informed by the Police Directorate, has been assigned to another position in the Special Police Sector purposes.
We are not told what position he is in now.
Regarding the questions you sent to our address by letter, we inform you that the authenticity of the recording that is the subject of your questions has not yet been established, and as of this moment no disciplinary proceedings have been initiated against the police officer Petar Knežević - Pobjeda was informed by the Police Directorate.
RECORDS
A few months after the events in Cetinje, that is, on April 30 last year, civic activists Svetlana Pajović-Musić and Aleksandar Saša Zeković were delivered three audio recordings on which Knežević can be heard, which unequivocally prove that on September 5, 2021, they were under his command numerous criminal groups in Montenegro. In addition, it is also clear how this police officer treated the citizens gathered in the Montenegrin capital - in one video he calls them a "digger".
The Special State Prosecutor's Office, however, assessed in the case of Commander Knežević that "there are no grounds for initiating criminal prosecution against any person for any criminal offense, for which prosecution is undertaken ex officio".
Zeković told Pobjeda that at the end of November he received a letter from the prosecutor's office in which they informed him that they would not initiate criminal proceedings and instructed him that, if he is of the opposite opinion, he has "the right to file a criminal complaint with this prosecutor's office against a specific person for a specific criminal offense, with with the attached evidence". The notice was signed by special prosecutor Sanja Jovićević.
Thus, the prosecutor's organization put an end to the evidence of police cooperation with criminals in the face of the enthronement of Metropolitan Joanikij Mićović of the Church of Serbia on September 5 of the year before last in Cetinje and the events that preceded it and happened before and during the act of enthronement itself.
The pro-Serbian political bloc fiercely defended its leader Knežević, and the outgoing Montenegrin Prime Minister Dritan Abazović, who at the time of the Cetinje events was the Deputy Prime Minister of the Government, which, by the way, was approved by the Church of Serbia, tried to relativize this affair. is also the coordinator of the security services. He said that the police operation in Cetinje was successful, and that the videos that appeared were not something that "a serious state should deal with"?!
In investigative texts, Pobjeda warned that criminals, as well as numerous extremist groups gathered around pro-Serbian associations, were involved in the preparation of Mićović's enthronement.
UNSERIOUS APPROACH
Despite the announcement of the chief special state prosecutor, Vladimir Novović, that their decision will be explained, the notification does not contain any explanation. Such an approach does not contribute to strengthening the public's trust, nor does it confirm that our findings were listened to and taken into account with the necessary seriousness and responsibility - Aleksandar Saša Zeković assessed for Pobjeda.
He believes that "there was a lack of a proactive approach that shows the willingness and determination of the state prosecutor's office to effectively check the allegations about Knežević's behavior and thus make a decision with a high degree of certainty."
The notification that we submitted to the SDT contains all the necessary elements of the criminal complaint and three separate pieces of evidence are attached that point to the commission of criminal offenses with reasonable suspicion. Acting state prosecutor could, as in other cases where the interest of the public was recognized, more visibly highlight his importance, capacities and role in the justice system - Zeković is categorical.
He also points out that the recordings they submitted to the prosecution should not be viewed as a whole, but as three separate events and evidence.
Those recordings struck and disturbed the public. It is particularly interesting, and this is where the role of the prosecutor's office should have come to the fore, that in relation to these events, certain persons were recognized who were, and still are, in a vulnerable position - explains Zeković.
He says he understands and supports "the fact that SDT should act with clear and strict respect for human rights and the law, but it seems that a proactive approach that was in the interest of the public and Mr. Knežević himself was missing."
The prosecution's proactive approach could have highlighted the observed inconsistencies, and especially encouraged potential witnesses, who are almost all police officers. We are all aware, including the prosecutor's office, of what the culture is like in the police organization and how important support and protection measures are for police officers to come forward with the facts and the truth - said Zeković, who for many years was the president and member of the Council for Civil control of the work of the police, and for almost three decades he represents respect for human rights in Montenegro.
He is categorical that "it is important to check, by international experts and independent bodies, whether the attached recordings as evidence have been altered or compromised in any way".
This is the best way to finally put an end to this case or start a more effective investigation - concluded Zeković.
As part of the internal control procedure, Knežević, as we wrote earlier, refused to undergo a polygraph test.
STRATEGIES OF VIOLENCE
Together with the assistant director of the Police Administration Miloš Rakonjec, he commanded a violent action against citizens of Montenegro in the Montenegrin capital, and for the interests of foreign countries and the Church of Serbia, after which the two became stars of the Serbian media. Knežević said in one of his statements that he was proud of the action in Cetinje.
After the brutal attack by the police on the citizens of Cetinje, who had gathered in protest against the authorities' decision to enthrone Mićović in the Cetinje Monastery - a Montenegrin sanctuary, then Prime Minister Zdravko Krivokapić decorated Knežević and other police commanders.
In the audio recordings submitted to the prosecution, Petar Knežević can be heard bragging that before and during his enthronement, he "kept in touch" with five criminal groups throughout Montenegro, and that he cleared "that mess in Cetinje", referring to the participants in the civil protest.
...I held the group from Nikšić, the group from Bjelopolje, the group from Beran, the group from Novlja and the group from Bar. All criminals on the phone - speaking, among other things, of a person who is claimed to be Knežević.
He also says that these criminals told him: "We are moving, you need us, we are moving, we are ready, we are moving... God forbid, if they don't release the patriarch, we are moving, we are going to set fire to Cetinje today, to set fire to Cetinje".
We went, we conquered Cetinje there, we didn't conquer it, but we cleared that dredge there and finished it - he says in one of the recordings.
UNDER BIA COMMAND
In a series of texts before the enthronement of Mićović, Pobjeda warned that the chain of command of the Montenegrin police, as well as other security services, was essentially "in the hands" of Serbian services.
We also announced that, according to later operational information from the National Security Agency, it was Rakonjac and Knežević who were their main conspirators.
The decision that Rakonjac and Knežević lead the action to enthrone Mićović and the brutal suppression of civil protests in Cetinje was made after Krivokapić met with the leaders of the Democratic Front, Andrija Mandić and Milan Knežević, on September 5 at around two in the morning. As we wrote earlier, they informed him that they have people in the police ready to take responsibility - Miloš Rakonjec and Petar Knežević.
The recordings that have appeared, which are not of interest to the Special Prosecutor's Office, unequivocally confirm Pobjeda's writing that the first associates of the director of the Police Directorate, Zoran Brđanin, were simultaneously, without his knowledge, preparing a "plan B" for Mićović's inauguration, with consultations with Serbian and Russian security guards and representatives of political organizations that advocate Russian and Serbian politics - the "Serbian world" in the Balkans.
For Knežević, judging by his biographical data, it is no surprise that Belgrade is closer to him than Cetinje. He was one of the soldiers from Košar (the battle of the then Army of SR Yugoslavia in 1999 in Kosovo), which he is extremely proud of. He was a member of the 63rd Parachute Brigade of the Yugoslav Army, and years later, in a book dedicated to the events at Košare, in the author's text, among other things, he wrote: "If there was another Kosovo battle before us, it would have been to the last drop of blood." Especially for us who were from Montenegro, there would be no greater shame than if we gave up".
Source - POBJEDA
