HRA: TS was not allowed to consider the election of Tatjana Begović for the position of acting VDT

Action for Human Rights (HRA) announced that it believes that the Prosecutorial Council should not have considered the selection of senior state prosecutor Tatjana Begović for the position of acting supreme state prosecutor from the list of prosecutors with at least 15 years of prosecutorial experience, because at the time the list was drawn up she was a member Prosecutor's Council.

The decision for Begović to take over the VDT was made yesterday by the Prosecutor's Council, which decided by the majority of votes in that body that the senior state prosecutor in Podgorica, until yesterday a member of that body, will take over the management of the prosecutor's organization in the next six months.

"The law prohibits the members of the Prosecutor's and Judicial Council from being elected as managers or promoted, and the Administrative Court has already established that this means that while they are members of the council, they cannot even be candidates," the statement reads.

HRA believes, as it says in the announcement, that submitting a resignation immediately before the election to a leadership position formally circumvents the ban, whose goal is precisely to prevent persons working in the prosecutorial or judicial "government" from enjoying an advantage during the election to a leadership position, i.e. another a function that is considered a promotion.

"We support the position of the member of the Prosecutor's Council, Steve Muk, who during the vote on the candidacy of Begović was the only one who abstained, judging that the election of Begović would be against the spirit of the law," they state.

In order to prevent this kind of behavior in the future, they propose to amend the law governing the work of the Judicial and Prosecutorial Council to prescribe a deadline during which a member of the council cannot run for promotion or a leadership position from the moment of the resignation.

"The Law on the Prosecutor's Council stipulates that 'during the term of office in the Prosecutor's Council, a member of the Prosecutor's Council from the ranks of state prosecutors may not be elected to the state prosecution office of a higher level or as the head of the state prosecution, and a member of the Prosecutor's Council from the ranks of distinguished lawyers may not be elected to state prosecutor or the head of the state prosecution' (Article 27). In the judgment U. No. 4523/2021, the Administrative Court established that Article 17 of the Law on the Judicial Council and Judges (essentially identical to the above-cited article of the Law on the State Prosecution) requires that a judge submit resign from the post of member of the Council before even applying for promotion," the announcement reads.

As they state, by noting the resignation of Begović, and by closing the session without first ending the item on the agenda that referred to the appointment of the acting VDT, and by simultaneously scheduling a new one at which the same item will be considered, only 20 minutes later, the Prosecutor's Council obviously wanted to avoid the application of the provision on the prohibition of advancement during membership in the Council.

"Even though she resigned from membership in the Council before the election, Begović was practically not a member of the council for only half an hour, which was necessary for a decision to be made, and by being elected as acting VDT, she also became the chairperson of that council," they conclude in the statement.