Podgorica, (MINA) – The Court of Appeal has upheld the verdict of the Special Division of the High Podgorica Court, sentencing Radoje Zvicer to 16 years in prison as the organizer of a criminal group.

 

The Appellate Court announced that it rejected as unfounded the appeals filed by the defense attorneys for the accused Zvicer, Milan Vujotic, Dragan Knezevic, Slobodan Kascelan and Igor Bozovic.

 

The Court recalled that by the verdict of the Special Division of the High Court, Zvicer, as the organizer of a criminal group, was sentenced to a single prison term of 16 years, while Vujotic and Knezevic were sentenced to 11 years each.

 

The press release also noted that Kascelan and Bozovic were sentenced to 13 years in prison each.

 

According to the Court, the first-instance verdict did not contain any significant violations of criminal procedure, and was based on a complete and properly established factual situation.

 

According to the Appellate Court, based on a comprehensive review of all presented evidence, the first-instance court correctly determined that Zvicer, during the second half of 2020, organized a criminal group with the aim of international cocaine smuggling.

 

It is added that Zvicer assigned specific tasks and roles to members of the criminal organization, in order to implement a joint criminal plan.

 

“The actions and tasks carried out by other defendants, as members of a criminal organization, were correctly established in the first-instance proceedings. Acting on Zvicer’s orders, they undertook activities to provide money for the purchase of cocaine that would be further distributed in Podgorica, Kotor and other places in Montenegro and in other European countries”, the press release said.