Boskovic Challenges Third Indictment in Podgorica Court

Former Montenegrin defense minister and Democratic Party of Socialists lawmaker Predrag Boskovic appeared today before the Higher Court in Podgorica to face a third indictment in five years. The case is being watched more closely across the region than an ordinary court story would suggest, since judiciary reform is one of the chapters Montenegro, a country ahead of Serbia in its European Union accession talks, must close before joining, and cases like this one serve as a gauge of how real that reform actually is.

What the indictment review covers

The review hearing was held today, September 21, before the Special Department of the Higher Court in Podgorica, in proceedings presided over by judge Vesna Kovacevic. Alongside Boskovic, the defendants include Slobodan Filipovic, a former state secretary at the Ministry of Defense, and Marko Drobnjak, a former head of the ministry’s financial operations service. The Special State Prosecutor’s Office (SDT), represented in the case by prosecutor Ivan Medojevic, has charged all three with abuse of office and asked the court to confirm the indictment, citing documentation gathered during the investigation along with witness statements.

What Boskovic is accused of

According to the indictment, Boskovic and Filipovic, acting in violation of the then-applicable Law on Non-Governmental Organizations and Law on Sports, used 43 decisions issued between 2018 and 2020 to award funds to certain non-governmental and sports organizations without a public call for applications. Drobnjak, the prosecution says, ordered the payments under those decisions and signed off on the payment requests sent to the State Treasury. The total amount paid out this way without a public tender, which the SDT says damaged Montenegro’s budget, exceeds 168,000 euros.

Boskovic rejected the idea that this amounted to a crime, telling the court:

“I acted just like every minister before and after me.”

He argued that, taken individually, the disputed payments were modest. The indictment covers 43 payments averaging under 4,000 euros each, which he said proves there was no intent to conceal anything. He also pointed out that the same practice continued after his term ended, under rules he says remain in force today.

He noted this was not his first run-in with prosecutors on similar grounds:

“This is the third indictment against me in the past five years. What have I done to deserve this.”

By his account, one earlier indictment was dropped, and he was acquitted with a final verdict on another. Defense lawyer Mihailo Volkov asked the court to halt the proceedings, arguing that the disputed decisions at the Ministry of Defense had passed through several layers of state oversight, including the State Audit Institution, without anything irregular being found at the time.

Filipovic told the court the indictment was meant to discredit him professionally, politically and personally. Drobnjak, for his part, argued that the prosecution’s indictment cites a provision that stopped applying years ago, and that the documents underlying the charges are not formal decisions but the ministry’s internal working papers. When asked how the same practice could be continuing today, special prosecutor Medojevic replied that other cases had been opened against officials who issued such decisions both before and after Boskovic’s term, without naming them.

Today’s hearing had already been postponed once, after Drobnjak received his copy of the indictment only two days before the previously scheduled date, leaving him too little time to prepare a defense.

Montenegrin law sets a prison sentence of one to eight years for the continuing offense of abuse of office, which Boskovic, Filipovic and Drobnjak are suspected of committing as co-perpetrators. The court said it would rule on whether to confirm the indictment within the legally set deadline, without specifying an exact date.

Why this is being watched in Belgrade too

The Boskovic case fits a broader pattern in which Montenegro’s judiciary, following the change of government in Podgorica, has turned its attention to former officials of the DPS, the party that governed the country for decades. For Serbia, that matters for two reasons: Montenegro is further along in its talks with Brussels, so the pace and outcome of trials like this one are read as a sign of how fast rule of law in the region is actually advancing, not just on paper. Whether the Higher Court in Podgorica will confirm the indictment, and when, is still an open question.