A session was held today before the panel of the Appellate Court of Montenegro to consider appeals against the first-instance verdict of the Higher Court in Podgorica, which sentenced the former President of the Supreme Court of Montenegro, Vesna Medenica, to six months in prison for abuse of office in connection with the case of the former judge of the Basic Court of Rožaje, Miroslav Zekić.
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The Special State Prosecutor's Office, as well as the defense attorneys of the defendant Medenica, attorneys Zdravko Begović, Zdenko Tomanović and Marko Drašković, appealed the verdict.
The Special Prosecution Office challenges the verdict in the part regarding the sentence because it considers it inadequate and proposes that the Court of Appeals modify the verdict and the defendant's sentence in accordance with the gravity of the criminal offense committed. The Special Prosecution Office pointed out that during the court proceedings, Medenica did not express remorse at any point.
In his appeal, attorney Begović stated that the specific case cannot be a criminal offense of abuse of official position and proposed that Medenica be acquitted of the charges. He believes that the specific case is about a showdown with Vesna Medenica.
Medenica agreed with this statement by her defense attorney.
Lawyers Tomanović and Drašković challenge the verdict due to the incorrect and incomplete determination of the facts, and the injunction of the first instance verdict being incomprehensible. They believe that the sentence is inadequate, considering that the Higher Court did not find any aggravating circumstances on the defendant's side.
"You cannot exceed the authority you do not have. In this specific case, there are three independent institutions and behind each of them there is a law that regulates its functioning. When the court says that Vesna Medenica acted instead of the Judicial Council, that is legally impossible," said lawyer Tomanović.
The indictment alleges, among other things, that on February 18, 2019, Medenica, in her capacity as an official of a public official, president of the Supreme Court of Montenegro and a member of the Judicial Council, was aware of her act and its prohibition, the execution of which she wanted, by exceeding the limits of her official powers, benefited Milosav Zekić, the judge of the Basic Court in Rožaje. In the way that she exceeded her powers as the president of the Supreme Court of Montenegro, in the case of Judicial Administration IV-I-Su. no. 7/19, formed on the basis of a submission by a group of citizens, dated January 23, 01, after receiving the requested information from Dr. Branko Vučković, president of the Basic Court in Kotor, in act Posl. no. IV-2019-Su 1/11 dated February 19, 12, in which it was stated that criminal proceedings are being conducted before that court, among others, against the defendant Milosav Zekić, in the case of business designation K. no. 02/2019/159, due to the criminal offenses of endangering safety from Article 18 paragraph 18 of the Criminal Code of Montenegro and minor bodily harm from Article 168 paragraph 1 in relation to paragraph 152 of the Criminal Code of Montenegro according to the indictment proposal of the Basic State Prosecutor's Office in Kotor, Kt. no. . 2/1, dated June 387, 17. year. Along with which document, she was also provided with a copy of the indictment proposal of the Basic State Prosecutor's Office in Kotor, Kt. no. 04.06.2018/387, dated June 17, 04.06.2018. year.
As stated in the indictment, Medenica stated in an official note on the inner cover of file IV-I Su no. 7/19 that "until the end of the proceedings, I do not find it appropriate and justified to take any action, a family dispute," and filed the case.
In doing so, she did not inform the President of the Judicial Council and other members of the Judicial Council that she had decided that it was not appropriate and justified to take any action against Judge Milosav Zekić, even though she was aware that criminal proceedings had been initiated against him for criminal offenses that made him unworthy of exercising the judicial office. Knowing that the decision on whether the legal conditions for the temporary suspension of a judge from office were met was not within her jurisdiction as the President of the Supreme Court of Montenegro, but, pursuant to the provisions of Article 121, paragraph 3 of the Law on the Judicial Council and Judges, was within the jurisdiction of the Judicial Council, in which Vesna Medenica, as a member, had the sole authority to express her opinion on the matter, and not to make a decision on behalf of the entire collective body of the Judicial Council. As a result, it provided Judge Milosav Zekić with the benefit of not being removed from the judicial office and exercising the right to full salary in the period from 18 February 2019 to 20 July 2020, when his resignation was declared at his request. During that period, he was only entitled to a reduced portion of his salary because the legal conditions for temporary suspension from duty were met, and it also provided him with the benefit of the privilege of performing judicial office and protection of his reputation, although during the aforementioned period, he could not perform that function.
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