The preparatory hearing for the trial in the procedure known as ‘Jovanjica 2’ has been postponed again, N1 has learned on Friday because one of the defendants did not appear at the hearing due to health reasons.

A new hearing is scheduled for April 8.

On Thursday, the trial in the Jovanjica 1 case was held with all defendants present after a while.

The Jovanjica 2 preliminary hearing has been postponed for almost ten months, according to Jugoslav Tintor, the defence counsel for the accused Radovan Bojovic.

The postponement has so far been caused by a number of different reasons – the absence of one of the defence attorneys; the demand of the principal defendant Predrag Koluvija revoked a power of attorney; the request for the exception of the acting judge, later rejected.

Koluvija, the main defendant in both Jovanjica 1 and 2 indictments, was the owner of the Jovanjica estate, where the largest marijuana plantation in Europe was discovered in November 2019. Both charge sheets describe him as the organiser of a criminal group that grew and distributed marijuana.

Besides Koluvija, Jovanjica 2 covers eight other defendants, primarily members of the police and security services suspected of protecting Koluvija and provided him confidential information from the police, falsified official documents and special police license plates.

Earlier, the Deputy Prosecutor for Organised Crime, Sasa Drecun, suggested the merger of the indictments to avoid obstruction, but the decision was still pending the finalisation of the preliminary hearings in Jovanjica 2 since the two proceedings were in different phases.

Koluvija was arrested on November 13, 2019, after stopping him for reckless driving on the Belgrade-Nish motorway . He was arrested for possession of a false police ID. The police raided Jovanjica estate and seized tonnes of marijuana on the same day.