The Supreme Court of Montenegro has begun monitoring the work of the Special Department of the High Court in Podgorica, which hears the most significant cases of organized crime, corruption and war crimes.
The Public Relations Service of the Supreme Court stated in its response to the "News" that the Commission for the Control of the Work of the Special Department of the High Court in Podgorica was formed and that it has started its work.
"The commission has seven members, five of whom are judges of the Criminal Division of the Supreme Court of Montenegro, and two members are judges of the Criminal Division of the Court of Appeal of Montenegro," the answer states.
According to the plan, the Commission should submit the Report on the control of the work of the Special Department of the High Court in Podgorica at the beginning of July this year.
At the beginning of the year, the Supreme Court of Montenegro adopted a Plan for improving the efficiency of the work of the High Court in Podgorica, which, among other things, provided a measure to control the work of the Special Department.
Acting President of the Supreme Court Vesna Vuckovic, then she announced that the plan also proposed changing the internal organization of the court while achieving an optimal number of cases in the work of the Special Department of the High Court in Podgorica, and "in order to improve the ability of judges to manage the trial in order to become more active and to better control the conduct of proceedings. ”
FEW JUDGMENTS, FREQUENT POSTPONEMENTS
The report of the Judicial Council for the year 2023 shows that the Special Department of the High Court in Podgorica, which tries cases of organized crime, corruption and war crimes, had 176 cases in its work, of which 33 were solved, and the remaining 143, i.e. 81,25 percent, remained unresolved. .
The small number of decisions is particularly worrisome if one takes into account the large influx of indictments in very complex and voluminous cases submitted to that department by the Special State Prosecutor's Office (SST) in the past two years.
That there are serious problems in the work of the Special Department of the High Court in Podgorica is shown by the average number of days in which court proceedings last, the frequent postponements of proceedings, but also the large number of defendants who, after three years of detention, got their freedom because the court panel during that time it didn't even issue a first-instance decision...
The average duration of proceedings in the Special Division of the High Court last year was 482 days, and that number is increasing year by year, so the duration in 2022 was 368, and in 2021 - 226 days.
The length of proceedings is one of the main indicators of judicial efficiency, especially in cases of organized crime and high-level corruption and war crimes...
The increase in the number of unsolved cases was also influenced by the inefficient management of the most sensitive procedures, and the case against a criminal organization, which included the former president of the Supreme Court. Vesna Medenica, where the start of the procedure was delayed as many as 17 times, is the best example of numerous procedural shortcomings
"Analyzing the work of the Special Department of the High Court in Podgorica, we observe an increase in the average duration of the procedure from year to year, which may indicate the complexity of the procedure, which requires more time for processing and decision-making. "Frequent scheduling and postponement of hearings, as well as the volume of evidentiary material that is not concentrated during the procedure but is proposed at different stages, can extend the time needed to resolve the case," states the report on the work of the Judicial Council for 2023.
Analyzing the work of higher courts, the Judicial Council concluded last year that the average workload of judges had increased.
In the Special Department of the High Court in Podgorica, the outflow of the most experienced judges, who were responsible for the most complex cases, continued during 2023.
"Their positions were filled as a priority to the detriment of all other departments, and currently there are seven judges working in that department for whom it is the main department, and in addition, there are two more judges for whom it is one of the departments," the report states.
THE "RED ENVELOPES" ARE PUMPING UP
According to the data, by the end of 2023 in the Special Department of the High Court in Podgorica there were as many as 44 cases with so-called "red envelopes", i.e. proceedings older than three years.
The increase in the number of pending cases in this court was also influenced by the inefficient management of the most sensitive procedures, and the case against a criminal organization that included the former president of the Supreme Court. Vesna Medenica, where the start of the procedure was delayed as many as 17 times, is the best example of numerous procedural deficiencies.
The Judicial Council in the report for last year states that the possible causes of the decrease in efficiency are the increase in the number of complex cases that require more time to process, the lack of court staff or judges in relation to the increased volume of work, administrative challenges and the need to modernize the work process, but also changes in legislation that may have led to an increase in caseloads or changed processing procedures.
During 2022, the Special State Prosecutor's Office filed indictments against a total of 318 persons from the field of organized crime, while 230 indictments were filed for crimes of high corruption.
From the jurisdiction of the Special State Prosecutor's Office, during 2022, financial investigations were launched in 12 cases against 110 individuals and 4 legal entities, and an order was issued to expand the financial investigation in one case against 7 individuals. During 2022, the SDT submitted to the High Court in Podgorica a proposal for the determination of temporary measures to ensure the prohibition of the disposal and use of movable and immovable property in 5 cases and 3 proposals for the temporary suspension of the execution of monetary transactions...
Numerous pending cases
The problems in the work of the Special Department of the High Court in Podgorica are shown by the numerous cases against the head of the judiciary, the prosecution and the Police Directorate, numerous high-ranking officials, who are at the very beginning or have not even moved on from the beginning of the main trial.
The trial of the special prosecutor To Saša Čađenović, who has been in custody since December 2022, is scheduled for July 3.
Numerous SDT indictments filed against the heads of the "Kavak clan", former and current police officials for cooperation with the mafia, are awaiting review or have just been confirmed...
After numerous delays, the control of the indictment in the "Plantaže" case was only held on May 14, and the control of the indictment in the "Abu Dhabi Fund" case was postponed several times, where it is believed that there was an unintended spending of a loan of 50 million euros.
In mid-May of this year, the High Court just confirmed the indictment against the former director of UP Veselin Veljović, and the indictment control procedure against another former police director is still ongoing Slavko Stojanović...
The European Commission also emphasized in its reports that the results of investigations and prosecutions in high-profile cases have improved, but that they are not followed by effective trials, and that there are almost no epilogues to those cases and convictions.
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