The High Court in Bijelo Polje confirmed the indictment of the Kolasin Basic State Prosecutor's Office (ODT) of June 28, which was brought against the former public bailiff Vladan Batak due to the suspicion of an extended criminal offense of abuse of official position, i.e. that he damaged clients and the PIO Fund for over 200 thousand euros.
This is written in the decision, which was made on September 20 by the president of the panel of the High Court in Bijelo Polje Dragan Dasic, which was published on the court's website.
The Prosecution accuses Batak of, among other things, based on non-existent verdicts, passing enforcement decisions on the collection of a fictitious claim that he submitted to the Central Bank of Montenegro, which, based on his decisions, repeatedly blocked the account of the PIO Fund for the amount of 210 thousand euros.
In the explanation of that decision, it is pointed out that the ODT in Kolašin brought an indictment against Batak before the Basic Court in the same city due to the well-founded suspicion that he had committed the prolonged criminal offense of abuse of official position. The Basic Court in Kolašin then submitted the files to the High Court in Bijelo Polje at the beginning of July this year, in order to make a decision on the control and confirmation of the indictment because in Kolašin, due to the insufficient number of judges, a panel could not be formed.
Same name and dispute in multiple solutions
In the explanation, it is also written that Batak is suspicious and that he issued decisions on execution, based on the judgment from 2019, which was issued in the dispute initiated by HH against the PIO Fund.
"In this way, using the data from his completed and already charged case from March 17, 2020, determining different values of claims that do not correspond to the awarded amounts from the executive document - he did not deliver the decisions to the parties for the judgment of the Basic Court, but sent them to the Central Bank in order to realize the collection, so the bank was ordered to block the account of the executor and transfer from it to a special giro account of the public executor, in which way he obtained an illegal financial benefit and caused damage to the PIO Fund", he writes in the explanation.
It is also emphasized that from the statement of the representative of the PIO Fund, it follows that in November 2023, during the preparation of the response to one request, the Fund found out that the name HH was mentioned in some enforcement decisions and those that have already been charged.
"So they asked for data from the Central Bank and in that way established that that name appears in several execution decisions that were made on the basis of the same execution document, only for different amounts. The same situation was in relation to MD and RB, with the fact that in those decisions the judgment of the court in which the PIO Fund was not a party to the proceedings was cited. In this way, 210.000 euros were illegally collected from the PIO Fund, of which BV has so far returned 95.431 euros, leaving a debt of 109.521 euros," the explanation reads.
The lawyer asked for the suspension of the proceedings
In the files, it is also written that Batak's lawyer requested that the proceedings against him be suspended, because he believes that there is no evidence that he is reasonably suspected of the crime charged in the indictment. Among other things, he also asked for the indictment to be returned and the investigation to be completed.
"Taking into account the above, as well as the defendant's defense, it can be concluded that the factual description of the indictment contains all the elements of the criminal offense charged against the defendant, that the evidence was obtained in a lawful manner, and that there is a well-founded suspicion that the defendant committed the same , while the true and complete factual situation can be established in accordance with the procedural principle of adversariality, only in the proceedings at the main trial", the explanation of the decision states.
Batak was a public bailiff in Kolašin, and he dealt with cases before the Basic Court in that and the Municipality of Bijelo Polje. As explained by the Chamber of Public Executors, he was engaged in this work from March 2017 until November last year, when he stopped working at his own request.
Batak was a public bailiff in Kolašin, and he dealt with cases before the Basic Court in that and the Municipality of Bijelo Polje. As explained by the Chamber of Public Executors, he was engaged in this work from March 2017 until November last year, when he stopped working at his own request.
A number of citizens from these cities have already complained to "Vijesti" and several of them have initiated proceedings before the local courts, due to problems in its work. Citizens claim that they are still on the list of debtors for electricity at Elektroprivreda, even though they paid the money, after Batak collected the debt but did not register the payment and directed the money to the account of the state energy company. In November of last year, the Ministry of Justice filed a criminal complaint against this executor with the Special State Prosecutor's Office (SDT) due to the suspicion that, by abusing his official position, he obtained material benefits and caused significant material damage to the state coffers and the PIO Fund.
The punishment can be imprisonment
The indictment against Batak was brought due to the well-founded suspicion that he committed the extended criminal offense of abuse of official position, from Article 416 paragraph 2 in relation to paragraph 1 of the Criminal Code, in relation to Article 49 of this Code.
"An official who by unlawfully exploiting his official position or authority, exceeding the limits of his authority or failing to perform his official duty obtains a benefit for himself or another, causes damage to another or seriously violates the rights of another, shall be punished with imprisonment from six months to five years. If the commission of the crime resulted in the acquisition of a financial benefit in the amount of over three thousand euros, the perpetrator will be sentenced to one to eight years in prison. A prolonged criminal offense consists of several of the same or similar criminal offenses committed in a temporal connection and which represent a whole due to the existence of at least two of the following circumstances: identity of the injured party, sameness of the object of the offense, use of the same situation or the same permanent relationship, unity of the place or space of the execution of the offense or a unique intention the perpetrator", these articles and positions of the Criminal Code read.
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