Montenegro Extradites Ex-Witness In 2016 Coup Plot Case To Croatia

PODGORICA -- Montenegro has extradited a former witness in a 2016 attempted coup case to neighboring Croatia, where he is to serve a prison sentence for unrelated offences.

Montenegrin police said on October 30 they had handed Sasa Sindjelic over to Croatian authorities to serve a 21-year jail sentence on murder and theft charges.

Sindjelic, a Serbian national, was arrested in Montenegro in July on the basis of an Interpol arrest warrant issued by Zagreb.

The High Court in Podgorica approved the extradition request in September, a decision later upheld by the Court of Appeal.

Sindjelic was a key witness in the trial related to a plot to overthrow the Montenegrin government during the October 2016 parliamentary elections.

In May, the High Court sentenced 13 defendants in the case, including two alleged Russian military intelligence agents and two Montenegrin opposition leaders, to up to 15 years in prison.

The defendants denied plotting a coup, which the court’s presiding judge said was aimed at derailing Montenegro's NATO membership bid.

The Kremlin has denied that "Russian state bodies" were involved.