For the millions in damages caused by ineffective investigations and acquittals, in the cases of Kalić and Šarić, after the members of these families were acquitted of money laundering from the sale of drugs, no one from the judiciary will answer, nor will any of those responsible think of resigning, and some have, even, after the fiasco in the courtroom, they advanced in the service, the analysis of the Center for Investigative Journalism of Montenegro (CIN-CG) showed.
Prosecutor Hasan Lukač, who was indicted against the Kalić family, was subsequently promoted and now evaluates the work of other prosecutors in the Prosecutor's Council. Former special prosecutor Đurđina Nina Ivanović, who handled the "Šarić" case, was returned to the position of deputy supreme state prosecutor.
Until the publication of the text, Lukač and Ivanović did not respond to CIN-CG's questions sent by e-mail - whether they feel personal responsibility for the unproven charges they filed and the consequences that occurred, as well as whether they were thinking of resigning. In a telephone conversation, Lukac told the CIN-CG reporter that he does not feel responsible for the "Kalić" case, that the indictment was of high quality and confirmed by the court. However, after that he insisted that an email be sent to him, to which he did not respond.
Apart from the fact that there is no political will to determine the consequences of these and similar cases, as well as a professional urge in the institutions that supervise the work of the judiciary, from them, in addition to highlighting the constitutional and legal provisions on so-called functional immunity, they also invoke statistics for help, proving that, mostly , everything is fine. Supreme State Prosecutor Ivica Stanković boasts that the prosecution has 90 percent of confirmed indictments and the same number of guilty verdicts based on indictments. He also rejects the idea of responsibility for the enormous damage caused to the budget by "a few" percent of acquittals.
Prime Minister Duško Marković claims that the Government has no responsibility for the work of judges and prosecutors. The huge costs from the budget due to the mistakes of judicial institutions, according to him, are a reflection of the independence of the judiciary, and "final acquittals are proof of the quality of the system, not its anomaly."
"The government, as one of the actors in the comprehensive reform of the judiciary, is certainly interested in all costs, including the costs of court proceedings, being lower, and we believe that in the coming period we will achieve that," Marković said at the end of April at the prime minister's hour in parliament, answering to MP Aleksandar Damjanović, but without explaining how he intends to do it.
The Minister of Justice, Zoran Pažin, has been ignoring this topic for months. Even this time, no answers came from his department to CIN-CG's questions about whether someone will be punished and whether the minister feels responsible for everything.
Former Minister of Justice and lawyer Dragan Šoć, assesses that the fact that there is no responsibility for poor work, ignorance and laziness in the state system, including in the prosecutor's office, shows that we are an immature society that is not able to punish people who do not work or do their job poorly. "Simply, we are too opportunistic to tell someone - you are not doing your job well, go and look for someone else." As merciless as we are in the private sector, we are as merciless in the public sector. When the citizens of Montenegro become this in the full sense and begin to see the state as their property, and public officials as their employees, things will change. Until then, we have to suffer", says Šoć in an interview with CIN-CG.
Ivica Stanković's office reminds the CIN of Montenegro that in disputed cases the indictments were confirmed, which confirmed that at the time when the indictments were filed, there was sufficient evidence for a well-founded suspicion that the defendants had committed the criminal acts for which they were accused.
"At the same time, we remind you of the fact that the Constitution of Montenegro stipulates that the head of the State Prosecutor's Office and the State Prosecutor enjoy functional immunity. This means that state prosecutors cannot be held accountable for an opinion given or a decision made in the performance of their duties, unless it is a criminal offense," the Supreme Prosecutor's Office announced.
Although the prosecutors failed to prove the well-founded suspicions, which led to millions in damages, the Prosecutor's Council is not concerned about that either, which also refers to the constitutional provisions that the head of the State Prosecutor's Office and the state prosecutor enjoy functional immunity. And in the Supreme Court, they refer to functional immunity, stating that a judge cannot be held accountable for the expressed opinion and vote when making a court decision, unless it is about a criminal act.
"Confirmation of the indictment is not a conviction, because in that case it would be pointless to open the main trial and manage it for the sake of its discussion," CIN-CG journalists from the office of the President of the Supreme Court, Vesna Medenica, said. From the Judicial Council, which is supposed to control the work of judges. , CIN-CG did not receive an answer to the questions that we also asked the Prosecutor's Council - about whether someone should be held accountable for the poor work of judicial institutions, whether they investigated someone's responsibility, why, in addition to functional immunity, the system of personal responsibility does not work and possible resignations.
How to say goodbye to idlers and ignorant people
The interlocutors of CIN CG assessed that the establishment of personal responsibility for the mistakes of judges and prosecutors would be the right solution, but that, unfortunately, this is not part of the practice.
"Only when the civil servant, no matter who it is in his pocket, feels the consequences of his inaction or bad work, he too will become serious. This measure is not difficult to implement at all. It is enough to start by analyzing the court cases that the state lost and how many unnecessary costs were paid. If only a part of it were collected from the people who are responsible for it, many would not even have bread and water," Šoć pointed out. Lawyer and analyst Sergej Sekulović says that certain steps have been taken in the evaluation system and its connection with disciplinary responsibility and promotion, but that we are at the beginning and that it should still work.
"In any case, personal responsibility that is accompanied by resignation is not part of our reality. Liability for damages that would fall on the plaintiff's personal income is a complicated story. In that sense, there would have to be a cumulation of incompetence and negligence (intention) or an overlap with possible criminal liability," Sekulović pointed out.
When asked whether the solution would be to establish a system of responsibility for damage caused to the state budget and how a possible general re-election in the prosecutor's office and the judiciary would change things in this regard, the judicial institutions replied - with silence. CIN-CG interlocutors estimate that the general re-election could be a double-edged sword.
"In such situations, it is difficult to separate political interest from the true intention to strengthen the system. In the context of political stability, with a political elite that is sincere in its intention, and with a serious dysfunctionality of the judicial system, it can produce results," assessed Sekulović.
Dragan Šoć, however, points out that there is no need for a general re-election "to say goodbye to idlers or ignorant people".
"As I said, we should get rid of collegial opportunism and false guild solidarity and clearly establish the practice of analyzing the work and rewarding or punishing the results, depending on success or failure," emphasized the former Minister of Justice.
The number of complaints is increasing, but without results
Representatives of the judiciary, as well as the prime minister, say that only the Judicial and Prosecutorial Council can control and evaluate the work of prosecutors and judges. In three years, from 2015 to 2017, the Prosecutor's Council initiated only one disciplinary proceeding against a prosecutor from the Basic State Prosecutor's Office and punished him with a three-month deduction of 20 percent of his salary, due to failure to provide data on assets and income. Last year, three prosecutors were punished in the same way and for the same reasons.
The alarm is not raised due to the growing number of complaints about the work of prosecutors, because the Prosecutorial Council mostly rejects them.
During 2015, there were only four complaints about the work of prosecutors, which were related to the legality of their work, and all of them were rejected. In the report for 2016, it is written that 39 such complaints were considered, of which the Council evaluated only four as well-founded. During 2017, 94 complaints were submitted, together with unresolved ones from the previous period, 109 cases were considered and seven were judged to have merit. In 2018, according to the report, 97 complaints were filed against the work of prosecutors, which were related to the legality of their work, the Council considered 53 complaints and determined the merits in only three cases. The Prosecutor's Council told CIN CG that in the majority of established complaints, they determined that state prosecutors did not act promptly and indicated that they should take immediate action in these cases and inform them of the decisions made.
"The determined non-up-to-date action of the state prosecutors did not result in the statute of limitations of the criminal prosecution, the impossibility of conducting the proceedings, nor any other consequences prescribed by law, and there was no basis in connection with the established well-founded complaints for the Prosecutorial Council to submit an initiative to the authorized submitters from Article 110 of the Law on the State Prosecutor's Office, for the eventual submission of the proposal for determining disciplinary responsibility," the Council's reply reads. In the previous four years, according to the assessment of the Prosecutor's Council, there was no violation of the code of ethics, although one prosecutor is currently on trial on charges of embezzlement. According to the data from the report, the Judicial Council conducted only four disciplinary proceedings in the last four years, of which in three cases the sanction in 2015 was a warning due to improper performance of the judicial function, and in one case in 2017 a three-month salary reduction of 20 percent. Out of 67 initiatives for violating the code of ethics, only five were accepted in the last four years.
There are no people responsible for the assessment of the property either
The Special Prosecutor's Office did not answer questions about whether they will investigate whether there are elements of a criminal offense in the assessment of the assets of the Kalić family. In the summer of 2011, the state temporarily seized property from Kalići. The company "Geotech" from Podgorica, at the request of the Property Administration, estimated that it is worth 28.667.161 euros. Several experts confirmed for CIN-CG that the estimate was unrealistic, especially in 2011, when the investment boom in Montenegro ended, and that it was not even worth eight million euros.
According to the findings of CIN CG, it is precisely this assessment that is the main trump card for Kalići in obtaining a sum of millions, which could reach ten million euros through several judgments. Starting from that assessment, experts determine compensation in a large number of court proceedings, as a result of the five-year state management of their property.
Lawsuits come in, millions go
In the last three years, the state earned only 16.500 euros from the sale of property that was permanently confiscated by final decisions, as announced by CIN-CG, and only in the cases of Kalić and Šarić, it had to return temporarily confiscated property valued at more than 40 million euros and to face huge compensation claims.
Last year, the Kalići submitted eight lawsuits to the Rožaj Basic Court, demanding around eight million euros. They filed two more lawsuits this year, demanding more than a million euros. The cases in which they were awarded around three million in five proceedings in Rožaje at the first instance, due to appeals, are in the High Court in Bijelo Polje. In the Basic Court in Podgorica, the Rožaj family is conducting two more proceedings seeking compensation for the "depreciated" apartment of 192 square meters and the "hummer" that the Property Administration donated to the Special Anti-Terrorism Unit of the Police. Proceedings are ongoing in the Kotor Basic Court regarding the apartment on Sveti Stefan, and in Ulcinj regarding the land and buildings located there.
There is a real danger that Kalić's lawsuits are just the beginning of emptying the state coffers, which, according to the same scenario, could be continued after the dropping of charges against the Šarić family from Pljevlja, linked to money laundering and drugs.
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