CEGAS and CIN-CG: Legal precedents and circumvention of the norms of the Prosecutor's Council

The Center for Civil Liberties (CEGAS) and the Center for Investigative Journalism of Montenegro (CIN-CG) have announced that they are warning of the possible consequences of cheating and creative interpretation of legal norms during the election of multiple prosecutor states and recent member of the Prosecutorial Council, Tatjana Begović, to the position of acting of the Supreme State Prosecutor.

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

"Without going into the indisputable references of prosecutor Begović, we believe that such legal precedents and circumvention of norms, which are contrary to the provisions of the Law on the State Prosecutor's Office, which forbids the members of the Prosecutor's Council to be elected as managers during the term of office, opens up space and creates a practice that will to give the same opportunity to a new composition of the Prosecutor's Council, to propose and elect candidates in the same way, who do not meet the requirements prescribed by law", say CEGAS and CIN-CG.

They state that they appreciate that the election of Begović, in the way that she resigned as a member of the Council only half an hour before the election and thus directly violated the clearly prescribed norm of the Law on the State Prosecutor's Office, unnecessarily cast a negative light on the beginning of the acting VDT mandate of the prosecutor Begović.

"Also, the question of her legal behavior and willingness to legally and principledly apply the applicable legal regulations was raised, bearing in mind that she herself agreed to play a precise norm in order to be elected to this position. In order to prevent possible abuses in the future, creative interpretations and stop this kind of behavior, we invite the members of the Prosecutor's Council to propose amendments to the Law on the State Prosecutor's Office as soon as possible, which, in addition to numerous changes needed by this law, would further specify the deadlines and prescribe a precise procedure for proposing and electing members for management positions in the prosecutor's office, during the duration of their mandate in the Prosecutor's Council", they conclude in the announcement.