Olivera Lakić

Lakić is an investigative journalist for the Montenegrin newsroom Libertas Press, and the daily newspaper Vijesti.^[1] Lakić wrote stories on crime and corruption in Montenegro, including stories on counterfeit tobacco products.^[2][3] Beginning in 2011, Lakić received threats against her and her daughter, if she did not cease her work.^[1] In 2012 she was attacked outside her home in Podgorica, and then again on 8 May 2018 in the same location. In the second attack she was wounded in the leg by a gunman.^[2] The attack was condemned by Prime Minister Duško Marković, and international governments and organisations.^[4][5] It was the second attack on a Montenegrin journalist in a month, and began a movement to reform media and journalist safety in Montenegro.^[1][2][6] She became an International Women of Courage Award recipient in 2019.^[7]

In December 2020 it was announced that two suspects had been detained, alongside others already in prison, for planning Lakić's assassination.^[8] In April 2025 the trial of a group of suspects in the 2018 attack and subsequent assassination plot was due to start in the High Court in Podgorica, but was instead assigned instead to a new panel, chaired by Radovan Vlaović. The defendants have also been charged with the murder of Miodrag Kruščić and with smuggling marijuana from Albania into Montenegro.^[9]