“You must not report this to anyone, or say anything, and you are not allowed to go to Bijelo Polje, we will find you and we will break both of your legs”, were the words used by police officers Ljubo Milović and his colleague M.P. in April 2018 to warn K.D. after they tried to extort confession from him for allegedly committed crimes by using physical force. After that, in December 2018, by the decision of the Minister of the Interior, Milović was temporarily removed from work in the Police Directorate. MANS’ data show that Milović was unlawfully employed in the Police Directorate for years.
Dejan Milovac, MANS Investigative Centre
The decision to temporarily remove Ljubo Milović from the position of senior police inspector in the Department on Drugs – Criminal Police Sector was made at the end of 2018 by the then Minister of the Interior Mevludin Nuhodžić after initiating disciplinary proceedings against Milović for violating the Code of Police Ethics and exceeding police powers.
Milović, together with his colleague Petar Lazović, is suspected in EUROPOL’s files of cooperation with the Kavači criminal clan, revealing information about police actions and active participation in drug trafficking.
In the decision on temporary removal, he states that in April 2018, Milović and his colleague M.P. used physical force to extort confession from K.D. for alleged crimes. The document states that Milović and M.P. beat the injured party K.D. with their hands and feet, threatened him and intimidated him if he reported them.
“Police officer M.P. continued to hit the aggrieved party with his legs and closed fists in the area of his head and body, threatening to cut off his fingers, and at one point he placed the fist of the aggrieved party on the table, and then with a blade, i.e. with the tip of a knife, he struck the upper part of his hand, inflicting bodily injuries on him, during which he addressed threatening words: “This is for you to come to your senses, I dare you to report me, and tomorrow you will come to work” and then left the apartment where he physically abused the aggrieved party, it is stated in the decision obtained by the MANS Investigative Centre.
The document further states that M.P. later returned with Ljubo Milović, after which they continued to beat him on the head and body with their hands and feet.
The decision to remove senior police inspector Milović from his job deprived him of his official badge and identification card, as well as weapons and other equipment entrusted to him for performing police duties. Despite that, Milović realized right to receive 80% of his monthly salary during his temporary dismissal from work, because in the statement he gave to the disciplinary prosecutor within the disciplinary procedure, he stated that he was supporting his family and that he was in poor financial state.
However, data of the Agency for Prevention of Corruption (APC) show that Milović managed to save 12,000 euros the following year, which was more than his annual salary as a police inspector. At the time, Milović was earning around 700 euros a month, while half of that amount went on a housing loan installment. Savings continued to grow, thus, Milović reported the amount of around 21,000 euros in the last report he submitted, which refers to 2021.
Loan of 212 thousand euros
At the end of 2017, police officer Milović took a loan of 212 thousand euros from an unknown legal or natural person, with the obligation to repay it in five years, with an incredible monthly installment in the amount of around 3,500 euros.
Excerpts from the property card of Ljubo Milović
Data from the property card show that Milović did not repay this debt until last year, when it was reduced by around 14 thousand euros.
Simple mathematics points to the conclusion that Milović could not pay a housing loan, another huge loan, and still save thousands of euros annually from his official police salary.
When asked by the MANS Investigative Centre whether they had performed a detailed inspection of Ljubo Milović’s assets and income so far, the Agency for Prevention of Corruption did not wish to answer.
When it comes to the loan in the amount of 212,000 euros, it is not clear what its purpose was, because according to official data, there was no change in the part of the property that Milović owns.
When it comes to real estate, Milović reported an apartment in Kotor with an area of 64 m2.
Milović was unlawfully employed in the Police Directorate for years
Ljubo Milović started his career in the police in 2002 as a police trainee at the Security Center Nikšić, where he worked until 2007, when he was transferred to the Department of Security Kotor by the decision of the then director of the Police Directorate, Veselin Veljović, to the position of independent narcotics inspector.
Veselin Veljović (Photo: Luka Zeković)
The decision signed by Veljović states that Milović did not pass the professional exam, and that he is given a deadline to complete it by mid-2011. After that, Milović was promoted to the senior police commissioner for the fight against drugs, but still without passing the professional exam for work in state bodies.
In the mid-2011, Veljović passed a new decision by which Milović was assigned to the Regional Unit Herceg Novi in the Branch for the fight against drugs, and again stated that he had not passed the professional exam.
From the decision on the deployment of Inspector Milović, photo: MANS
The following year, Milović was assigned to the position of Independent police commissioner in the Police Directorate, Department for Combating Drugs and Smuggling, Drug Suppression Group – Herceg Novi, Kotor and Tivat, where his work was extended three times by the then directors of the Police Directorate Božidar Vuksanović and Slavko Stojanović. Milović passed the professional exam as late as in 2015 and for the first time he could legally work in the Police Directorate.
Still no detailed checks of “suspicious police officers”
Although during the 42nd Government of Montenegro an extensive action was announced on the so-called in-depth inspection of the assets of police officials and officers for whom there are grounds for suspicion that their lifestyle cannot be explained by officially declared income, apart for the decision to form a special Anti-Corruption Unit, nothing else happened.
The Minister without portfolio, Zoran Miljanić, said in a statement for the MANS Investigative Centre that the previous government never adopted the Rulebook on the systematization of the mentioned unit, thus, it was never formed.
