N16.T10 – ANB Former Director Peruničić: I Had No Information That Lazović Was Protecting the Kavač Clan
HRA NEWSLETTER 16 – TOPIC 10
Former Director of the National Security Agency (ANB), Dejan Peruničić, testified in the continuation of the trial against former Chief Special Prosecutor Milivoje Katnić, Special Prosecutor Saša Čađenović, and former police official Zoran Lazović.
By way of reminder, they are charged with having committed the criminal offences of forming a criminal organization and abuse of official position, as members of a criminal organization allegedly organized by Lazović, for the benefit of the Kavač criminal clan.
Before the special panel presided over by Judge Veljko Radovanović, Peruničić stated that his professional cooperation with Zoran Lazović had been exceptional, and that neither partner services nor domestic services had provided him with information indicating that Lazović’s son, Petar—who transferred from the Police Directorate to the National Security Agency—had acted against the interests of the Agency or of Montenegro.
He denied that the former Assistant Director of the Police Directorate had protected members of the Kavač clan, who are currently being prosecuted in Serbia for the most serious criminal offences.
“While I was Director, the ANB had no knowledge that Veljko Belivuk and Marko Miljković had committed criminal offences in Montenegro or that they posed a threat to the national security of the state. I had no information that Zoran Lazović was in any way protecting an organized criminal group, including the Kavač clan,” said Peruničić, who headed the National Security Agency from August 2015 until November 2020.
The continuation of the trial against Katnić, Čađenović, and Lazović is scheduled for 3, 4, 10, and 12 February.
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