Perović and Paović trial postponed due to judicial employee strike

The trial of the former director of the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption, Jelena Perović, and her assistant, Nina Paović, was postponed today in the Podgorica High Court because court associates went on strike.

The main trial hearing was scheduled for 10:30 a.m., but there was not enough time to hear all the witnesses by 11 a.m. One of the reasons for the delay was that Perović's defense attorney, attorney Nikola Martinović, said that at 12 p.m. he was representing Petar Lazović in another case being heard before the High Court.

A new hearing is scheduled for October 10th.

Martinović told reporters after the hearing that the proceedings were "taking their course." "Suspensions - if there are any - will affect other trials scheduled in this court," he said.

Perović and Paović are accused of abusing their official position while they were at the head of the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption, thereby, according to the indictment, obtaining benefits for others and causing damage to the budget.

Court employees have been stopping work for an hour every working day since Monday, dissatisfied that the draft law on public sector salaries does not recognize them as judicial employees. They are demanding that their status be clearly defined and that their salaries be adjusted to the complexity of the work they perform.