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Montenegro’s president sharply criticized the government after the son of a former head of the Supreme Court went missing following his conviction for leading an organized crime group, despite being under court-ordered house arrest.
Police were unable to locate Miloš Medenica after he was sentenced on Wednesday to 10 years and two months in prison, prompting public outrage and questions about the authorities’ handling of the case.
His mother, Vesna Medenica, who once headed Montenegro’s top court, was also sentenced to 10 years in prison for multiple counts of illegal influence while in office. Both were fined 50,000 euros ($59,800).
“The fact that police are searching for Miloš Medenica, even though he was under house arrest, is an unprecedented scandal and a collapse of an unserious system,” President Jakov Milatović said on Thursday. “If the state loses a convicted organized crime figure on the day of sentencing, the prime minister has no control over his own government.”
Milatović said the episode exposed deeper institutional failures in Montenegro. “Justice without accountability is not justice,” he said, calling on Prime Minister Milojko Spajić to dismiss those responsible or accept political responsibility himself.
Miloš Medenica was found guilty of creating a criminal organization, extended smuggling, two counts of illegal influence and obstruction of evidence. The court also sentenced 15 other defendants and one company in the case, which prosecutors said involved drug trafficking, cigarette smuggling, weapons offenses, bribery and abuse of office.
Vesna Medenica was found to have used her judicial position to assist the criminal network led by her son.
The verdict also cited encrypted messages Miloš Medenica exchanged with others on the SKY ECC platform in 2020 discussing cocaine use, though the court found no evidence that he supplied drugs to others.
Montenegrin anti-corruption watchdog MANS called on prosecutors to appeal the ruling and demanded accountability for Medenica’s disappearance.
“We expect SDT to appeal this verdict, given that this is a person whose actions significantly undermined trust in the Montenegrin judiciary,” the organization said, adding that authorities must explain how a convicted organized crime figure evaded supervision and that police release all monitoring records related to Miloš Medenica’s house arrest,
The Medenica case had previously drawn attention internationally. In 2019, OCCRP reported on Vesna Medenica’s involvement in a controversial lawsuit filed by Montenegrin tycoons against local media, highlighting a trail of disputed deals and legal maneuvers that raised concerns about judicial independence in Montenegro.
