Montenegro Opposition Leader Tried for Money-Laundering

The trial of Nebojsa Medojevic, one of the leaders of Montenegro's strongest opposition alliance, the Democratic Front, opens on Wednesday in Podgorica.

Medojevic and 11 others were indicted by the Special Prosecution for Organised Crime for allegedly plotting to evade taxes and for money-laundering to finance the pro-Russian Democratic Front's campaign for the October 2016 general elections.

Medojevic is known as one of the sharpest critics of the government and of the ruling party run by veteran leader Milo Djukanovic.

The Special Prosecution said it had gathered evidence that Medojevic was a member of an illegal organisation and was in charge of organising a group of people "who distributed the money to other individuals who then donated the sums to the Democratic Front".

Prosecutors have been probing the Front over suspicions that the alliance had "received substantial funds from Russia", it added.

But Medojevic and other Front officials have denied the accusations, claiming the case is targeting the alliance because of its opposition to the government and Djukanovic, who has been in power for almost three decades.

They have described it as a political trial aimed at reducing the Front's influence in the country being the strongest opposition group.
Parliament, which is dominated by Djukanovic's Democratic Party of Socialists, DPS, lifted Medojevic's immunity in June last year, on the request of the special prosecutor for organised crime, Milivoje Katnic.

Medojevic told BIRN on Tuesday that he will demand a public broadcast of the trial to "allow Montenegrin citizens to see for themselves the pointlessness of a meaningless indictment".

"It's in the public interest of Montenegrins to watch me live in the...