Podgorica, (MINA) - Police officers are legally authorized to enter any home and search it without a court order, the Basic Court in Podgorica announced.

The Court reacted after the Acting Director of the Police Administration, Lazar Scepanovic, made claims during the Parliamentary Security and Defense Committee session on Monday about delays in issuing a search warrant in the case against Danilo Mandic.

According to the Court’s press release, on April 19, at 8:30 p.m., a request was submitted to the Basic Court in Podgorica for a search warrant of an apartment and other premises, and the investigating judge issued two search warrants at 8:50 p.m. and 8:58 p.m.

They emphasized that the Request for issuing the order did not mention any risk of delay, nor it included a request for the search to be conducted at night.

“Why the initiative was submitted so late and why the prosecutor’s office submitted the request to the court at 8:30 p.m., this court cannot answer, but the public can judge for itself”, the Basic Court’s statement reads.

Reacting to the announcement of the Basic Court, Scepanovic denied the Court’s claims, maintaining, as he said during the Security and Defense Committee’s session, that the police officers submitted a written initiative to the Basic State Prosecutor in Podgorica on April 19 at 6:55 p.m. and requested a search warrant for D.M.’s apartment and other premises, noting that the search needed to be carried out at night due to the urgency of the situation.

He said that, in addition to the written initiative, police officer M.B. also made a verbal request to the judge to issue an order to start the search at night, because the action in the specific case could not be initiated and completed within the deadline provided by law.