Medenica will not escape the investigation?

Representative of the Ministry of Justice in the Prosecutor's Council Bojan Božović he told "Vijesti" that he would wait for the decision of the Supreme Court, which rejected the request for the dismissal of the head of the Higher State Prosecutor's Office in Podgorica due to the factual and legal shortcomings of the indictment. Beautiful Medenice, in order to initiate further legal steps in order to get answers in the case of whether and to what extent there may have been illegal influence on the prosecutor's work Vukas Radonjić.

Božović pointed out that he was sorry that the disciplinary proceedings were stopped in the first stage, explaining that the Prosecutor's Council did not go into the merits, but only examined the formal and legal conditions for initiating further proceedings through the evaluation of the quality of the indictment proposed by the deputy disciplinary prosecutor. Tanje Nišavić.

He said that the case must be investigated, and that he will not agree to "this story just ending"...

"No one, not even us in the Ministry of Justice, would have commented on the case in such detail if we had had an epilogue on the merits and the Supreme Court had decided by majority. It is problematic for us that at the first step, in a very unusual way, this story is currently stopped," emphasized Božović.

On Wednesday, the Prosecutor's Council rejected the proposal for the dismissal of Lepa Medenica by a majority of votes, putting an end to the months-long case of the alleged inappropriate influence of the head of the Higher State Prosecutor's Office in Podgorica on the prosecutor Radonjić at the first step.

After such a decision by the most important body within the prosecution organization, whose role is to protect the independence, autonomy and integrity of prosecutors, the public was denied an answer as to whether there might have been inappropriate influence on prosecutor Radonjić, i.e. what happened on October 13 to 14, 2021. happened in the relationship - Basic State Prosecutor's Office in Podgorica - Higher State Prosecutor's Office in Podgorica - Supreme State Prosecutor's Office...

Nine members of the TS voted to initially reject the indictment proposal, while Božović and Stevo Muk had a different attitude...

"Such a decision is problematic for several reasons - firstly because we are not a court in the full sense or capacity, but the Prosecutor's Council is a multifaceted, collective body, which above all should deal with issues related to disciplinary procedures. If the Supreme Court would appreciate only the quality of the indictment proposal, then the question arises as to whether the role of the Prosecutor's Council is rendered meaningless, because if every indictment proposal were of poor quality, then in the future there would be no situation where we could decide on such matters," said Božović.

He emphasized that he understands the logic of lawyers - TS members who are in the courtroom every day and are obliged to evaluate the quality of indictments, but that at the session he was surprised by the reaction of the representatives of the Council who come from the prosecutor's organization...

"It is symptomatic that colleagues - prosecutors, members of the TS - found so many mistakes in that indictment, considering that they proposed the deputy disciplinary prosecutor to this Council at the very session of the Supreme State Prosecutor's Office. They, as the VDT, should probably have the clearest picture of the quality of all prosecutors, so a logical question arises - how did you propose someone who can't even write a high-quality indictment proposal. And if she is able to do that, then the Supreme State Prosecutor's Office should ask why it was not written in a better quality. What is also problematic is that we stopped the proceedings at this stage, and I don't think anyone, including us, should be surprised why the state prosecutors previously started the story at the Parliamentary Committee, and not at the prosecutor's organization or before TS. After such a decision, I must say that I think we have discouraged all future prosecutors from possibly reporting a similar situation", added the representative of the Ministry of Justice in TS.

At the closed session of the Prosecutor's Council, as told to "Vijesti", a discussion was also started that Tanja Nišavić's low-quality indictment proposal was allegedly a continuation of a series of deficiencies in the proposal for determining disciplinary responsibility, which was initiated by the Minister of Justice Marko Kovač.

"Article 113 of the Law on the State Prosecutor's Office, the disciplinary prosecutor is bound by the factual description of the disciplinary offense from the proposal for determining disciplinary liability. Most of the members were of the opinion that the low-quality proposal of the minister led to the indictment proposal of the deputy disciplinary prosecutor Tanja Nišavić," said the interlocutor from TS.

Božović said that he states that the disciplinary prosecutor is bound only by the proposal of the Minister of Justice, they cannot stand...

"First of all, I think that the initiative was quite sufficient and clearly described the factual situation, but what is even more important, the Minister of Justice only initiates the procedure for conducting this procedure, the investigative actions are carried out by the disciplinary prosecutor and based on that, he draws up the indictment," he explained. .

A TS member claims that the minister neither can nor should know all the circumstances of the case "because otherwise we would not need the indictment proposal of the disciplinary prosecutor, but the TS would decide immediately on the proposal of the Minister of Justice".

"Ultimately, the question in that case is whether we would even need a disciplinary prosecutor if this were to be done, and that is certainly not, nor can it be, the intention of the legislator", Božović.

He also believes that during the disciplinary procedure, other facts could be discovered that could not be known to the Minister of Justice "because he is not authorized to conduct investigative actions".

"Consequently, the specification and closer determination of the factual description is not a change in the factual situation," Božović explained.

Several interlocutors from TS explained to "Vijesta" that there was allegedly no legal possibility to return the indictment to the disciplinary prosecutor for amendment or refinement, so that in this way the disciplinary proceedings would not have ended, but in the first phase.

All the more so because similar processes for the dismissal of prosecutors, they claim, have been rare in the prosecutor's organization until now.

"In this case, we can only request that the responsibility of the deputy disciplinary prosecutor be investigated, but we have limited authority under the law or possibly challenge that decision of the TS in a future administrative dispute. And there is a big question whether we will be able to be an interested party, because the indictment proposal was submitted by the disciplinary prosecutor, and the Minister of Justice is only the initiator. We will wait and ask through the Prosecutor's Council that this case does not end this way, but that it be continued in order to examine all the circumstances", Božović concluded.

In the indictment, which Vijesti had access to, the deputy disciplinary prosecutor took statements from Lepa Medenica and Vukas Radonjić during the proceedings, as well as the witness of this case - the prosecutor Nikola Boričić and Dražen Burić and submitted the minutes of the hearing to the TS.

In the minutes of the hearing, conflicting statements of the prosecutors are listed, who clarified who called whom at what time and in what way in the dead of night, and after prosecutor Radonjić, an hour before midnight on October 13, 2021, gave a written order for the arrest of two police officers for manipulating the UP system, and when the ban on the entry of two high-ranking members of the Kavac clan was deactivated Veljko Belivuk and Marko Miljković...

The issue of Medenica's dismissal was raised by the Minister of Justice, Marko Kovač, after a stormy session of the Parliamentary Committee for Justice, where the question of the behavior of the prosecutors, but also of the policemen in the Belivuk case, was raised, when Boričić and Radonjić accused the head of the Higher State Prosecutor's Office in Podgorica.

Several prosecutors, police and government officials were heard at the parliamentary body, and due to the fact that someone opened the border for members of the Kavac clan, who a few months earlier, according to SDT's accusations, directly participated in the murder of two people in Spuz.

Prosecutor Radonjić said in front of the deputies that the UP did not listen to his verbal order to arrest two police officers, and that, after he had given the written order, Medenica called him around midnight and shouted in a raised tone and demanded to let the officers go. UP but also "accused of acting illegally".

His words were confirmed by Boričić, the head of the Podgorica ODT at the time, who stated that Medenica "called him three times without success asking for the same thing, and that after that she "turned on Radonjić"...

Now we don't know if there was any pressure

The executive director of the Center for Civil Liberties (CEGAS), Marija Popović Kalezić, told "Vijesti" that the decision of the Prosecutor's Council did not allow "a complete determination of the factual situation, so we failed to find out whether there were elements of inappropriate pressure or not, which was crucial importance".

"Given the fact of the bad situation in the entire judiciary, I believe that those who perform their work professionally and ethically, always benefit from proving and not covering up any source of doubt about their work. Such a decision of the Prosecutor's Council does not convince us of the good reputation of this body, nor does it convince us of the intention and desire to resolve matters to the end," she stated.

Popović Kalezić claims that the indictment proposal was obviously flawed, but that the Prosecutor's Council "had to send it back for revision".

"TS had to, through the conclusions, give guidelines as to what is missing in the proposal. The determination of the responsibility of the deputy disciplinary prosecutor is questionable, precisely for the reason that TS did not allow the proceeding to continue. "Unfortunately, due to principles and the collapsed judicial system, everything ended with this, and we are left to wonder what it was all about and why the decision of the Supreme Court stopped the entire procedure," she concluded.

"Vukas, who did you arrest"

"Vukas, who did you arrest, let them go immediately. She was literally yelling at me. I said I wouldn't, after which she told me - you and Boričić at 9 o'clock in the morning at my place with the case", is part of the statement that prosecutor Vukas Radonjić told during the hearing before the deputy disciplinary prosecutor.

He clarified that Medenica, when she realized that he would not listen to her words, told him in a telephone conversation: "Now they will call you Dražen Burić"...

After that, he was called by Burić, who had an inappropriate statement about the head of the Higher State Prosecutor's Office.

Radonjić stated that Medenica called him the next morning, apologizing for being too rude, explaining that it was Burić who called her and woke her up with the words: "Look what they are doing to you, and you are sleeping"...