High Court ignored Supreme Court ruling and extended Zoran Lazović’s Detention?!
In the appeal filed today by Lazović’s defence counsel, lawyer Zoran Piperović, it is pointed out that the operative part of the High Court’s decision, which lists the rulings extending detention, fails to mention a decision by the Court of Appeal of Montenegro. More specifically, the appeal argues that, through a subsequent ruling, the High Court unlawfully added a new legal ground for detention to the original and final detention order
The panel of the High Court in Podgorica, presided over by Judge Zoran Radović, completely disregarded a ruling by the Supreme Court, which should have been binding, when deciding to extend the detention of former police official Zoran Lazović.
In the appeal filed today by Lazović’s defence counsel, lawyer Zoran Piperović, it is pointed out that the operative part of the Higher Court’s decision, which lists the rulings extending detention, fails to mention a decision by the Court of Appeal of Montenegro. More specifically, the appeal argues that, through a subsequent ruling, the High Court unlawfully added a new legal ground for detention to the original and final detention order.
Under the detention order of 26 April 2024, Lazović was remanded in custody pursuant to Article 175, paragraph 1, of the Criminal Procedure Code, on the grounds of a risk of flight. Subsequent decisions extending his detention added point 4 of the grounds for detention, namely the seriousness of the alleged offence, as an additional reason for keeping him in custody.
On 4 September this year, in its reasoning for rejecting requests to order the detention of businessmen Vesko Kovačevićand Ranko Ubović, the Court of Appeal referred to a ruling by the Supreme Court of Montenegro dated 6 July 2026. That ruling states that, where a particular ground for detention has been definitively rejected, a decision to extend detention cannot subsequently be issued on that same ground; only a new order imposing detention may be issued.
It was precisely these decisions, involving the subsequent addition of a new ground for detention, that were overturned by a ruling of the Supreme Court, which the High Court panel knowingly disregarded.
- Nothing here was born crooked that time cannot straighten out. Everything was done lawfully from the outset, and it was the ruling of the Court of Appeal – missing from the operative part of the challenged decision extending detention – that subsequently “bent” what had been lawful - lawyer Piperović argued in his appeal.
Piperović is therefore asking the Court of Appeal to overturn the High Court’s decision extending Lazović’s detention.