The Appellate Court of Montenegro has let stand a lower court decision refusing extradition, according to court documents obtained by reporters of the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) and Center for Investigative Reporting in Serbia (CINS).
It is the final step in a complicated series of legal maneuvers that began last December, when the High Court in Podgorica ordered the men extradited. After defense lawyers appealed in January, the High Court reversed its ruling and rejected the extradition request.
The High State Prosecutor in turn appealed, seeking to reinstate the extradition order, but the top court refused to revisit the issue in documents dated Feb. 21
According to the extradition documents signed by Montenegro and Serbia, a court may deny extradition if the crime in question was committed in that court’s country. While Bojović was killed in Serbia, judges apparently defined the “crime” in this case as its planning, which evidence indicates occurred in Montenegro.
"Persuasion to commit the crime, as facts described, was carried out in Montenegro," states an Appellate Court decision filed in January. "Article no. 8 of the contract on extradition between Montenegro and Serbia, among other things, permits refusal of extradition if the offense for which extradition is sought was committed on the territory of the requested State (in this case, Montenegro)."
Criminologist Zlatko Nikolić says that decision shows that Montenegro and Serbia lack political will to tackle crime.
"This is a circumvention of the bilateral extradition treaty, because it makes no difference to the act of murder if it’s intended here or there, but where it is committed," Nikolić said.
According to him, this decision helps criminals to escape prosecution.
"It creates a safety zone for crime groups, especially for those who are directly related to the government," said Nikolić.
Šaranović and Koljenšić have been released from custody, where they have been since July of last year when they were arrested on warrants announced by the Belgrade Department of Interpol. They were accused of involvement in the murder of Nikola Bojović, the brother of Serbian criminal Luka Bojović, who himself faces charges in Serbia of organizing several murders and who is currently in prison in Spain.
Details on murder
Nikola Bojović
Nikola Bojović was killed last April in downtown Belgrade around 7 a.m, as he came out of a bakery.
The order for investigation issued by the Serbian Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime in July 2013 states that the murder was committed for “gain and ruthless revenge."
Proscutors say that Šaranović organized the murder for revenge because he believes that Luka Bojović was behind the murder of his own younger brother, Branislav Šaranović, who was machine-gunned to death in Belgrade in 2009. That murder has not been solved.
Shortly after his brother’s murder, the elder Šaranović put up a poster at the window of his exchange office in Belgrade with a picture of his brother and an offer of “a six-digit reward in euros” to anyone who provided him the name of the person who ordered the hit.
"I swear on my honor and my name that I will not only forgive the direct executors of the murder of my brother Branislav, but… that I will not report them to the police or to pursue them by any other way, if they choose to give me the accurate information: who contacted them first, in which way they were engaged, who paid them, who is the true originator of the job, or in whose name and on whose behalf they did it? The warranty applies also to my firm promise that for described information, the cash prize in the amount of six (6) digits in euros will be paid," the poster said.
The prosecutors say the man who actually killed Nikola Bojović is suspected to be Saša Cvetanović, also known as “Pit bull”, from Vranje, who received between €15.000-20,000 (US$20,000-27,700 for the job. They say the deal was struck in Montenegro, and Cvetanović was smuggled into Belgrade by Ratko Koljenšić.
According to prosecution documents, the crime unfolded as follows:
Preparations for Bojović’s killing were made in advance; the suspects were given a flat to stay in and hide, the cars required to commit the crime and the weapon with which the murder was committed.
Days before the murder, the suspects followed the movements and habits of Nikola Bojović, noting the time when he left his apartment, what car he drove, the people with whom he associated - in order to choose the most opportune time and place to commit the murder.
In the early morning of April 29, 2013, Koljenšić and Cvetanović allegedly waited for Bojović at Carica Milica Street in the center of Belgrade. Koljenšić signaled with his right hand to show Cvetanović the best place to carry out the murder, and then walked away.
In the entrance of a building at Carica Milica Street, Cvetanović waited for Nikola Bojović to arrive. About 7 a.m., he fired 15 bullets into Bojović’s head and body, killing him.
After his arrest in Budva in July 2013, Šaranović told to the investigating judge of the Higher Court in Podgorica that after his brother’s murder he did not leave Montenegro where he lives in the seaside town of Budva.
On the same occasion, Koljenšić pleaded not guilty and said that he doesn’t belong to any criminal group and that he had no prior convictions. He explained that he knows Šaranović only because they are countrymen and that there is no other connection between them.
Businesses in Serbia
Šaranović owns enterprises in Serbia, Montenegro and Austria. His Serbian companies Lutrijafilnik and 40 U Kamenje P dealt with games of chance and the exchange of money. Since 2003 these two companies owned nine exchange offices throughout Serbia - six in Belgrade, two in Novi Sad and one in Kraljevo. Lutrijafilnik company was deleted from the registry of the Business Registers Agency in May 2009.
Šaranović was the owner of Filnik, headquartered in Vienna, which is involved in the gambling business. In Montenegro, he owns other companies.
Branislav Šaranović
His brother Branislav Šaranović, once an influential figure in the criminal underworld, was known to police authorities in Serbia as a member of the Montenegrin Mafia.
According to documents obtained from a German prison, Branislav Šaranović was arrested on charges of extortion and sentenced to eight and a half years. German magazine Der Spiegel (Der Spiegel) at the time announced that Šaranović and his associates managed to escape in spectacular fashion in the 1980s by blowing open a steel prison door. He was killed in 2009 in front of the building where he lived in Belgrade. His murder remains unsolved.
Reporters for OCCRP have written previously about Branislav Šaranović businesses in Serbia and Austria. In the February 2013, OCCRP published a story about Branislav’s company Fil-Šar in Vienna, through which he ran three casinos in Serbia. He bought this company from Ivica Tončev, now National Security Adviser to the Serbian Prime Minister Ivica Dačić.
