Knezevic and Vranes Questioned Over Mladic Posts

Democratic People’s Party (DNP) leader and Montenegrin lawmaker Milan Knezevic was questioned by police on October 8 over his posts and statements about Ratko Mladic. According to a statement carried by the Belgrade daily “Novosti,” the mayor of Pljevlja, Dario Vranes, was questioned as well. The case reaches into Serbia because it concerns the former commander of the Army of Republika Srpska, and because opinions that carry criminal weight in Montenegro are now being voiced about him. Vranes’s description of Mladic as an “immortal Serb hero” was also published in the Belgrade press.

What did Knezevic say after leaving the police?

Knezevic told reporters he was summoned on two grounds. The first is his social media posts about the death of Ratko Mladic and verses dedicated to him. The second is his speech at the last session of the Montenegrin parliament, in which he said he regards Mladic as a hero, not as a war criminal. By his account, he told police he stands fully behind everything he said and will not use his immunity.

“Ratko Mladic is a war hero to me, not a criminal, and had it not been for him, Serbs would have gone through suffering like that in the Independent State of Croatia, Jasenovac, Jadovno and countless killing grounds that nobody wants to talk about today,” Knezevic said.

He said he arrived at the police station over one complaint and realized there were two: “I came because of one complaint, and I realized there were two.” Knezevic says the complaint accuses him of inciting religious hatred and intolerance and of glorifying war criminals. He disputes that, explaining that he embellished nothing and spoke only the truth.

He laid out his position on immunity, and on why he was summoned, this way:

“I will not invoke immunity, and I will not allow the prosecution or the courts to re-educate the Serb people, while Adem Jasari, Osman Rastoder, Hasim Taci, the KLA and the terrorist formations that destroyed the common state are celebrated here, and only we Serbs are to be showered in genocidal ashes and declared the general culprits. I am ready to go to prison for my convictions and I will not budge one iota,” Knezevic said.

He added that, in his belief, the prosecution wants to punish him because he did not provide a quorum to remove parliament speaker Andrija Mandic, which he says confirms his earlier warnings that the prosecution is becoming a fourth branch of government.

A separate episode concerns Milos Medenica. Knezevic called on the prosecution to look into everything Medenica has said, and announced that he will sue him if it does not do so within the next seven days.

“Tomorrow he also sent a threatening message saying he will ride me, which I take as a threat. I invite him to carry out that intention, and the message is clear that they want to settle scores with me. Let the ‘Kavcani’ bring you in so you can try to ride me,” Knezevic said.

Where did the complaints come from, and who started the proceedings?

The trigger was a post Knezevic put on social media on August 27, the day Mladic died: “Glory is eternal and suffering is short. Every Serb house has its own Ratko.” Mladic died at the age of 83 in the detention unit of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals in Scheveningen.

A criminal complaint against Knezevic and Metropolitan Metodije over public posts about Mladic was filed by Bosniak associations and non-governmental organizations. Knezevic thanked them and said he could not have been in better company, and he repeated the same message. A month later, at a session of the Montenegrin parliament, he said that Mladic is a hero to him.

The gathering of information from Knezevic through the police was initiated by the Higher State Prosecutor’s Office in Podgorica. The head of that office, Dusko Milanovic, confirmed this to ETV.

What did Vranes tell the police?

“Novosti” published part of the record of Dario Vranes’s questioning, which, they report, was seen by the Podgorica paper Borba. The questioning lasted about half an hour. In his statement Vranes confirmed that the Instagram profile “predsjednik_pv” is his and that he runs it personally, that he placed the obituary notice, and that he attended Mladic’s funeral service and burial.

According to the record, Vranes said:

“General Ratko Mladic is an immortal Serb hero.”

Later in the statement, according to the same record, he claims that Mladic saved the Serb people of Srebrenica, Bratunac, Zepa and Skelani from a new Jasenovac. He concluded with words that “Novosti” highlighted:

“It is an honor that I placed the obituary notice in the newspapers and attended the funeral service and burial of General Mladic. As long as I live, I will light a candle and pray for the repose of General Mladic’s soul.”

Asked where he was when he gave an interview to the portal ETV and its reporter Kacusa Krsmanovic, Vranes answered that he was at his workplace in Pljevlja and that he answered her questions personally over Viber.

The deadline Knezevic gave the prosecution in the Medenica case, if the seven days are counted from the day of the questioning, expires on October 15.