Dusko Knezevic, once a close ally of former President Milo Djukanovic, was extradited to Montenegro to face charges of involvement in corrupt financial deals.
Dusko Knezevic, a Montenegrin businessman and president of the Atlas Group, was extradited from Britain to Montenegro on Tuesday.
The extradition came after Westminster Magistrates’ Court in London ruled that the businessman could be sent back to his home country, where he has been wanted by the Special State Prosecutor’s Office since July 2019.
“Today, officials in the department for the fight against crime, with the assistance of officers of the Special Purpose Police Sector, successfully extradited D.K. (65), a citizen of Montenegro, from Great Britain to Montenegro,” the Montenegrin police said in a statement.
Police said Knezevic is wanted on suspicion that he committed the criminal acts of abuse of office in his business operations through incitement and abuse of office in his financial dealings through incitement, as well as establishing a criminal organisation and money-laundering.
Knezevic was to be taken to the High Court in Podgorica after he landed in the capital.
In an earlier statement to Montenegrin media, the businessman said that he had agreed to “return to Montenegro” after the decision of the British court to extradite him.
“Procedurally, we did not use the opportunities we had, because my property was being looted in Montenegro and I wanted to come to stop it, but also to prove my innocence, because all the people who accused me are now already in prison,” Knezevic told independent daily newspaper Vijesti.
He claims that he will arrive with a “blue bag” which he has repeatedly claimed is evidence that will incriminate former President Milo Djukanovic, Knezevic’s former ally.
In January 2019, a video clip from 2016 surfaced in which Knezevic appeared to hand the then mayor of Podgorica, Slavoljub Stijepovic, an envelope containing what Knezevic later said was $100,000 to fund an election campaign for Djukanovic’s ruling Democratic Party of Socialists, DPS.
After the publication of the video, there were protests by civic movement Resist! for several months in Montenegro.
Knezevic, who avoided arrest for five years in London, has repeatedly told media that he had been providing cash to the DPS covertly from the mid-1990s onwards.
Montenegro’s special prosecution accused Knezevic in 2019 of heading a criminal group that organised and executed the laundering of 500,000 euros through Atlas Banka. Knezevic illegally received 1.9 million euros, the prosecutors claimed.
These allegations were made after Knezevic, a former close ally of former President Milo Djukanovic, accused Djukanovic and his then ruling DPS of involvement in corrupt financial deals. Both Djukanovic and the DPS denied the allegations.
In June 2019, Djukanovic filed a lawsuit against Vijesti newspaper and Knezevic personally over claims that he took bribes.
Djukanovic, who held power in the country for almost 30 years, said he was seeking a total of 100,000 euros in damages for insult and injury to his reputation – 50,000 euros each from Vijesti and from Knezevic.
The lawsuit came after Vijesti published an interview with Knezevic in March under the title “Djukanovic, me and a bag of money”.
In the interview, Knezevic claimed he had a video of Djukanovic receiving a bag of money from him. Knezevic also alleged that he had other evidence to prove that Djukanovic and other DPS officials were involved in wrongdoing.
A number of Djukanovic’s political opponents have been claiming for years that Knezevic should be given the status of a cooperating witness, due to the alleged evidence he has against the former president.
However, according to Montenegrin legislation, Knezevic cannot be granted this status while he is under suspicion of being the organiser of a criminal group.
