Plea agreements are concluded for criminal acts, which, taking into account the manner of execution and consequences, should not be the subject of the agreement or should be a rarity.
This is the opinion of the coordinator of legal affairs in the non-governmental organization Center for Monitoring and Research (CeMI), Ivan Vukčević, based on the analysis of the NGO "Institute of Plea Agreements in Montenegrin Legislation and Practice".
"Plea agreements are concluded for criminal acts, which, taking into account the manner of execution and the consequences, in our opinion, should not be the subject of the agreement or should be a rarity, such as sexual offenses, high corruption.. In addition, we assessed the penal policy as inadequate, especially in the part of mitigating the punishment. For this reason, we recommended to more precisely standardize the reduction of punishment in the case of a plea agreement, in order to achieve a more coherent penal policy", said Vukčević during the presentation of the research results at today's conference "Shortcut to justice - results and effects of the application of the agreement on guilty plea".
In the period from 2016 to 2019, CEMI's legal team monitored a total of 642 court cases, and from that number, they monitored 134 plea agreements.
Of the total number of observed plea agreements, he claims, five were concluded in 2016, ten in 2017, 25 in 2018 and 94 in 2019.
In the mentioned period, they inspected the case files in which the agreement was concluded in 12 basic courts - in Plav, Berane, Kolašin, Rožaj, Bijelo Polje, Danilovgrad, Nikšić, Podgorica, Bar, Ulcinj, Herceg Novi and Kotor. They also followed the agreements concluded in the Bjelo Polje and Podgorica High Courts.
Vukčević claims that the prosecution initiated the conclusion of the plea agreement in 30 analyzed cases (22,39 percent), while in 104 of them (77,61 percent) the initiative came from the defendant or his defense attorney.
He stated that the agreements were most often concluded in relation to the criminal offense of unauthorized production, possession and distribution of narcotic drugs (24). 22 agreements were concluded for the illegal possession of weapons and explosive substances, nine for illegal trade, seven for document forgery, violent behavior and serious crimes against public traffic safety.
He said that one case of concluding an agreement for the criminal offense of illicit sexual activity was recorded, as well as three cases of violence in the family and the family community.
Vukčević said that 69 prison sentences, 17 fines, and community service were imposed in 11 cases.
42 warning measures were issued, namely - 41 conditional sentences and one court warning. 43 security measures were imposed.
He reminded that the Law on Criminal Misconduct (CPC) clearly stipulates that the agreement must be in accordance with the interests of fairness, but that, analyzing the judgments in cases of agreements, they noticed that in some cases the court has decisions of a formal nature.
"More precisely, that the explanation of the sanction was not enough for the implementation of a new institute and for trust in this institute. In the report, you can also see an example in which it is actually only stated what is written in the law, which we do not consider sufficiently explained", he explained.
He said that their report confirms "the importance and all the sensitivity of this issue, which on the one hand contributes to the efficiency of criminal proceedings, and on the other hand can contribute to the decline of citizens' trust in the justice system if this institution is not applied expertly, carefully and comprehensively".
"Such conferences should only be an introduction to a dialogue that will continue, that will not end even after this or some other conference and dialogue in which representatives of some other authorities, as well as the public, will participate," Vukčević said.
The methodology by which the CEMI legal team observed the trials was developed in accordance with the principles of the trial monitoring program 2007-2014, in cooperation with the OSCE Mission.
"The basic principles are the principle of non-interference in judicial disputes, the principle of objectivity, the principle of consent. Random selection of subjects was also the basic method, while in addition we also used a targeted sample in those subjects in which there is actually greater public interest", explained Vukčević.
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