Head of Montenegro’s Anti-Corruption Agency Arrested
The director of Montenegrro’s Agency for the Prevention of Corruption, Jelena Perovic, was arrested by order of the Special State Prosecutor’s Office. Members of the Special Police searched the premises of the agency from early Wednesday morning.
The Prosecutor’s Office has not yet announced why Perovic was arrested, but at the end of March it stated that it had formed a case investigating allegedly inappropriate spending of money.
At that time, irregularities in the agency’s operations had been spotted by the inspectors of the Ministry of Finance. Their findings, submitted to the Special State Prosecutor’s Office, stated that Perović in 2023 claimed overtime and variables for which she received almost 13,500 euros, contrary to the Law on Salaries of Employees in the Public Sector.
Last year, an NGO, the Network for the Affirmation of the Non-Governmental Sector, filed a criminal complaint against Perovic, alleging abuse of official position. The NGO claimed Perovic made an illegal decision by assigning herself and her assistant two official cars owned by the agency for their permanent use.
The Special Police Department also searched the official car used by Perovic.
Perovic repeatedly denied all accusations made against her in public. In response to claims made by the ruling parties that she was protecting high-ranking officials of the former ruling Democratic Party of Socialists, DPS, and its former leader, Milo Djukanovic, she insisted there is no selectivity in the agency’s actions.
On March 20, she said an investigation launched by MANS into the value of Djukanovic’s watches was in the final phase, and the public would be informed of the agency’s ruling around April 10. It did not happen.
Perovic was also under the scrutiny of the Prosecutor’s Office over messages she exchanged with the former long-serving president of the Supreme Court, Vesna Medenica.
In the messages found in Medenica’s phone after her arrest at 2022, which were published, Perovic, then the head of the Basic Court in Cetinje, asked for suggestions on how to act in certain cases.
In a communication from 2020, Perovic also wrote to Medenica that they must meet because she had received a job offer. That year, she was elected head of the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption.
After the messages were made public, Perovic claimed that it was subterfuge.
In November 2023, a lawyer, Nikola Angelovski filed a criminal complaint to the Supreme State Prosecutor agains Perovic, accusing her of leaking state officials’ personal data. Angelovski claimed she gave a Serbian software company, Prozone, access to thousands of officials’ personal data.
Her arrest was welcomed by Deputy Prime Minister Aleksa Becic who said the action sent a clear signal that Montenegro will continue with the firm hand of a just and determined state.
The arrest is the latest in a series of actions initiated by the Special State Prosecutor’s Office.
Former chief special prosecutor Milivoje Katnic and former deputy police director Zoran Lazovic were arrested on Sunday. On Monday, they were detained for up to 30 days due to the risk of escape and possible influence on witnesses. They are suspected of creation of a criminal organisation and abuse of official position.
