Action for Human Rights (HRA) said that they demand the determination of responsibility for the failure of the state prosecution "in numerous cases over a period of several years", which, as they state, led to the statute of limitations in at least 2.208 cases, of which 1.958 or 90 percent of the cases in the Basic State Prosecutor's Office in Podgorica.
"Murders, serious thefts, robberies, serious bodily injuries and torture will remain unpunished due to the massive failure of managers in the state prosecutor's office," the announcement states.
"The Secretariat of the Prosecutorial Council stated that 2.208 cases in the State Prosecutor's Offices of Montenegro are out of date, of which 1.958 cases are in the Basic State Prosecutor's Office in Podgorica (90%). The other cases are in ODT Rožaje (132), ODT Cetinje (46), ODT Kolašin (46), Higher State Prosecutor's Office Podgorica (7), ODT Bar (11), ODT Nikšić (6), Higher State Prosecutor's Office Bijelo Polje (1) and Special State Prosecutor's Office (1)," adds HRA.
They state that the majority of criminal cases are theft (532), aggravated theft (567), robbery (113), causing general danger (96), illegal possession of weapons (64), falsification of documents (81), endangering security (40), serious physical injuries (24), torture (2), while the criminal offense of murder (2) was also statute-barred in the Higher Prosecutor's Office in Podgorica.
"We are talking about cases marked 'Ktn' which indicate cases in which the perpetrator of the crime is unknown and in which state prosecutors are responsible for conducting investigative actions in cooperation with the police (Article 16 of the Law on State Prosecution and Article 44 of the Code of Criminal Procedure) ", states HRA.
They remind that the head of the ODT Podgorica, Duško Milanović, informed the Prosecutor's Council in October of last year about numerous "Ktn" cases that were placed in the archive for years and were not assigned to the prosecutors.
"The Prosecutor's Council then required all state prosecutor's offices to submit a report on unprocessed cases within 60 days, including a list of cases, the names of competent prosecutors and the dates when the cases were assigned to them. The reports were considered before the Prosecutor's Council only on March 14, 2024 , after the deadline for submitting the report was extended," HRA writes.
They add, the Prosecutor's Council concluded, based on the report, that the information should be submitted to the Supreme State Prosecutor's Office for further action: "The Prosecutor's Council does not have the authority to initiate disciplinary proceedings, but the heads of state prosecutor's offices and the Supreme State Prosecutor have such authority, if they judge that there is a reason to initiate disciplinary procedure."
According to the Law on the State Prosecutor's Office, the HRA indicates, a proposal for determining the prosecutor's disciplinary responsibility can be submitted by his immediate supervisor, the head of the immediately higher state prosecutor's office, the Supreme State Prosecutor, the Minister of Justice, as well as the Commission for Monitoring the Implementation of the Code of Ethics whose members are members of the Prosecutorial Council.
However, the HRA believes that the magnitude of the omission, "as well as the extent of harmful consequences" require that "the criminal responsibility of the responsible managers for criminal acts against official duty, which may also be the result of corruption, be considered."
"The impartial and thorough handling of the state prosecutor's office in this case is extremely important for strengthening the integrity and public trust in its work, for establishing the rule of law and preventing such serious failures from happening in the future," the announcement concludes.
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