The former Chief of the General Staff of the Yugoslav Army, Momčilo Perišić, was released after serving more than two-thirds of the four-year prison sentence he was sentenced to for espionage, lawyer Novak Lukić confirmed for RTS.
In 2022, the Appellate Court in Belgrade sentenced Perišić to four years in prison for divulging state secrets, i.e. handing over confidential military documents to an employee of the US Embassy.
This court thereby overturned the first-instance verdict of the High Court in Belgrade, by which Perišić was sentenced to three years in prison for the criminal offense of espionage.
In its explanation, the Court of Appeal stated that it increased Perišić’s sentence, taking into account several high-ranking positions held by Perišić in the highest authorities and that as their holder “he was obliged to a greater degree to preserve the fundamental values on which the legal system and the security of the state rest”.
The procedure in this case was initiated by the former military judiciary in March 2002, but Perišić then invoked parliamentary immunity.
It was reactivated in 2004, but was interrupted the following year due to Perišić’s departure to the Hague Tribunal, where he was tried for war crimes, which ended in 2013 with an acquittal.
The procedure for espionage was reactivated in 2014.
Perišić was arrested on March 14, 2002, in a restaurant on the outskirts of Belgrade, on suspicion of “disclosing confidential information to American intelligence officer John Nejbor”, who then invoked diplomatic immunity, Srna writes.
