Serbia Arrests Alleged Montenegro Coup Plotters

Serbian police arrested Nemanja Ristic, 43, and Predrag Bogicevic, 47, on Friday on suspicion of terrorism and in line with an arrest warrant issued by Montenegro, the police announced.

Nela Kuburovic, Serbian Justice minister, told a press conference just hours before police informed the public of the arrests that Serbia would continue working on Montenegrin extradition requests after it receives the necessary documentation from Podgorica, in line with their bilateral agreement on extradition.

"When the men are in custody, we need to get an official extradition request from Montenegro, which still did not happen in this case. We only received a mass warrant that was submitted to the ministry for its opinion," Kuburovic stated.

On December 27, the Montenegrin prosecution said an arrest warrant had been issued for five persons, including Ristic and Bogicevic, in connection with "terrorist" activities - including plans to kill the former Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic on election day, October 16.

The warrants are for the arrest of "two citizens of Russia and three citizens of Serbia in connection with the setting-up of a criminal organization and terrorism," the prosecution said.

Media reports earlier identified the Russians as Eduard Shirokov and Vladimir Popov, while the name of the third Serbian national was not revealed.

The Serbian and Russian governments have denied all involvement in the alleged anti-NATO plot, as the pro-government media in Montenegro call it.

As BIRN previously reported, Montenegrin Special Prosecutor Milivoje Katnic in November admitted that the prosecution has no proof that the Russian state was involved in the affair.

On November 18, Katnic said that a group of Serbs, Montenegrins and...