The 13 Montenegrin, Russian, and Serbian individuals accused of plotting an election-day coup in Montenegro in 2016 were acquitted of all charges by that Balkan country's High Court on July 12, marking the latest twist in a seven-year prosecutorial saga since authorities claimed to have thwarted a last-ditch conspiracy to derail Montenegro's NATO accession.
Prosecutors had alleged that the Russian-organized plot included plans to attack parliament and assassinate longtime leader and then-Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic.
But at the end of a retrial ordered in 2021, the three-judge panel decided "there was no evidence that the defendants were guilty of the crimes they were charged with, so they are acquitted," according to Judge Zoran Radovic.
The Special Prosecutor's Office is expected to appeal the acquittals.
The defendants include the current speaker of the Montenegrin parliament, Andrija Mandic, along with two other senior members of the pro-Russian, right-wing populist Democratic Front party.
Two Russians tried in absentia were accused of organizing and financing the purported coup attempt, along with a retired Serbian police commander and seven other Serbian nationals who were arrested on election day more than seven years ago.
An initial court decision in May 2019 over terrorism charges resulted in guilty verdicts and a combined 70 years in prison for the defendants before that ruling was overturned in 2021.
Russia has resisted calls for the handover of alleged plotters Eduard Sismakov and Vladimir Popov.
On July 11, Judge Radovic said that, in order for someone to be declared guilty, there must be certainty in the facts, "and there is none."
He said the weapons alleged to have been organized for the coup attempt "never entered Montenegro, the equipment that was supposed to be used for the forced entry into the Assembly was not brought into Montenegro, and the claim that the special units were supposed to shoot at the Montenegrin police has not been proven."
Neither the special prosecutors nor the accused were present at the announcement of the acquittal.
Mandic and the other Montenegrin suspects accused Djukanovic of political retaliation against the then-opposition through the Special Prosecutor's Office.