Podgorica, (MINA) – The session of the Security and Defense Committee, which was scheduled to conduct control hearing with Minister of the Interior Danilo Saranovic, Acting Chief of Police Lazar Scepanovic and Director of the National Security Agency (ANB) Ivica Janovic, was not held due to the absence of several Committee members who had previously voted for the control hearing.

Saranovic, Scepanovic and Janovic were expected to answer MPs’ questions regarding the security sector’s response to the incident in Zabjelo in which a Montenegrin citizen was wounded, and based on which the Government of Montenegro suspended the visa-free regime with Turkey.

The hearing had been requested by DPS MPs Danijel Zivkovic and Nikola Janovic, Dritan Abazovic of the Civic Movement URA, Social Democrats’ Nikola Zirojevic and independent MP Jevrosima Pejovic.

“The Committee session, named so maliciously, was not held because some of the MPs who voted a few days ago to convene the session under such a malicious title did not show up today”, said Saranovic. 

According to him, this is another missed opportunity for him and Scepanovic to provide additional explanations regarding the events in Zabjelo.

“Everything that happened is evidence of hybrid and malicious activity, aimed at attacking the security sector”, Saranovic argues.

He claims that these attacks came from various structures, primarily the police cartel and organized crime.

Explaining the police activities following the Zabjelo incident, Saranovic said that the security sector worked efficiently in the days following the incident and that they clarified on several times how the arrest of Turkish citizens took place, emphasizing that the arrests were made solely on the order of the prosecutor.

Scepanovic also expressed his disagreement with the subject of the hearing, pointing out that misinformation spread, which is being attributed to the Police Administration, is a malicious and hybrid continuation of activities previously directed by certain interest groups. 

When asked if the police’s treatment of the Turkish nationals was proportionate, given the photos showing them leaning against the wall during the arrest, Scepanovic replied that the police officers acted with maximum restraint, in accordance with the law.