Several thousand people marched in the Montenegrin capital Podgorica on Saturday, demanding the resignation of the country’s president, Milo Djukanovic, amidst a fresh allegations of corruption involving illicit political funding.
The demonstrations began after a video surfaced showing businessman Dusko Knezevic apparently handing the former mayor of Podgorica, Slavoljub Stijepovic, an envelope containing what Knezevic later said was €97,500 to fund the ruling Democratic party’s (DPS) 2016 election campaign.
Knezevic, who claims to have been secretly funding the DPS for 25 years, released another video earlier this month showing a senior central bank employee soliciting a bribe and promising in return not to send inspectors into one of Knezevic’s banks. Djukanovic has denied the allegations, saying all party funding has been correctly reported.
Knezevic, who is accused of money laundering in Montenegro, is now believed to be in London.
Besides the president’s resignation, protesters are also calling for Prime Minister Dusko Markovic, Supreme State Prosecutor Ivica Stankovic, and the chief prosecutor for organised crime Milivoje Katnic all to step down, accusing them of turning a blind eye to rampant corruption within Djukanovic’s circle.
The demonstrators, lead by an informal group of intellectuals, academics, NGO activists and journalists said they wanted to rouse Montenegrins from a state of “collective amnesia” regarding the government’s corruption and Milo Djukanovic’s well documented connections with organised crime.
These go back to at least 2003 when Italian police said they recorded conversations between Djukanovic and the Camorra crime family discussing a massive cigarette smuggling operation. Djukanovic admitted his involvement, but said he was acting in the interests of Montenegro, which he said was desperately in need of cash after the break up of Yugoslavia.
As prime minister, he claimed diplomatic immunity until eventually the case against him was dropped in 2009.
In 2015 the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project awarded Djukanovic the title of Man of the Year in Organised Crime, describing him as “the last European dictator”, who has “captured [Montenegro] for his own private interests and turned it into a safe haven for criminals.”
Milo Djukanovic has led Montenegro either as president or prime minister in an almost unbroken stretch since in 1991.
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