Former Montenegrin Agriculture Minister sentenced to house arrest
Former Montenegrin Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Milutin Simović has been sentenced to six months of house arrest.
The verdict was handed down by the Higher Court in Podgorica. He is accused of presenting 5,000 euros in private expenses for stays in hotels and restaurants as official costs and then settling them from the Ministry’s budget, RTCG reported.
According to the Special State Prosecutor’s Office, he committed the criminal offence between 2017 and 2020, CE Report quotes FENA.
Simović’s lawyer Miroslav Adžić said they are not satisfied with the verdict and announced an appeal.
“Milutin Simović was found guilty of four out of the 16 acts of commission presented in the indictment. He was sentenced to a prison term of six months, which he will serve under house arrest. The damage caused by those four acts amounts to around 1,500 euros,” Adžić said, adding that the defence will attempt in the further course of the proceedings to prove that Simović did not commit even the acts for which he was convicted in the first-instance judgment.
In his closing statement before the Higher Court, Simović stressed that he does not feel guilty of the charges brought against him.
On the order of the Special State Prosecutor’s Office, Simović was arrested on 22 December last year. After several days in detention he was released to defend himself from liberty. He was also arrested on 13 December 2024, again on the order of the Special State Prosecutor’s Office, but detention was not ordered at that time.
The prosecution had suspected him of being connected to the unlawful payment of money from the agro-budget.
However, in the indictment later filed by the Special State Prosecutor’s Office, Simović was not included.
In connection with the alleged unlawful payment of money from the agro-budget, the accused are former Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Petar Ivanović, former State Secretary in that government department Nemanja Katnić, and head of the Finance, Accounting and Public Procurement Service Vukica Perović, RTCG reports.
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