The Podgorica High Court will again decide on the charges of the Special State Prosecutor's Office (SDT) against former Supreme Court President Vesna Medenica because the judges of the Court of Appeal overturned the first-instance verdict that sentenced her to six months in prison.
The SDT accused her of abuse of official position.
The Court of Appeals said that the panel accepted the appeals of Medenica's defense attorneys and returned the case to the first-instance court for a retrial.
They state that they have determined that the first instance court committed significant violations of the provisions of criminal procedure, which relate to the fact that the operative part of the verdict is incomprehensible, contradictory to itself and to the reasons for the verdict with regard to the time of the commission of the criminal offense, the status of the official, and the act of committing the criminal offense with which the defendant is charged.
"Also, according to the Court of Appeal, the first-instance verdict does not contain any reasons on decisive facts, and the reasons given are completely unclear and to a significant extent contradict the facts established by the evidence presented in the proceedings. Due to the aforementioned significant violations of the provisions of criminal procedure, according to the Court of Appeal, the first-instance verdict could not be examined, but it was necessary to annul it and return it to a new trial. The first-instance court was given a clear order on how to correct the significant violations of the procedure, so that it would be able to make a lawful decision," the statement states.
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