Changes in the prosecution on the long stick

The Democratic Front (DF) and the Democrats did not achieve any progress in terms of reaching an agreement on the final list of candidates from among distinguished lawyers for the Prosecutorial Council (TS).

This calls into question the expectation of the government leaders that personnel changes in the prosecutor's organization will begin in September. The government's intention is to change the composition of the TS to pave the way for the dismissal of Acting Supreme State Prosecutor (VDT) Dražen Burić and Chief Special Prosecutor Milivoj Katnić, whom he believes are doing their job selectively and are under the political influence of the previous government.

As "Vijesti" previously announced, there is agreement from the ruling parties for the three candidates from among distinguished lawyers who received the most trust from the members of the Assembly's Committee for the Judiciary - lawyers Siniša Gazivoda, Miloš Vuksanović and Filip Jovović, while the fourth is Nikola Bulatović, disputed by the Democrats. Officially, they state that in the "Coup" case, he was the defender of one of the leaders of the DF, Andrija Mandić.

Deputies of the DF, the Socialist People's Party, the United Montenegro and the Workers' Party submitted on Friday to the President of the Parliament of Montenegro, Aleksa Bečić, an initiative to elect new members of the TS on Saturday (July 31), but the session was not scheduled because the ruling majority was not managed to come to an agreement. Since the regular session of the Assembly is over, an extraordinary session of the Parliament - which can be initiated by at least 27 deputies - can be held on August 16 at the earliest. So far, there is no indication whether there will be such a session, and some of the deputies are already on vacation.

1 candidates applied for the competition for four positions among distinguished lawyers in TS, which lasted until July 16. In addition to Gazivoda, Vuksanović, Jovović and Bulatović, Marica Babović, Danijela Bulatović, Nevenka Božović-Jovović, Balša Dragović, Borivoje Đukanović, Maja Zeković, Dalibor Kavarić, Elvis Duraković, Nikola Medojević were heard before the Committee for Political System, Justice and Administration. Zdenka Perović, Jovan Poleksić and Savo Šofranac. Dragović, Medojević and Perović withdrew their candidacies.

When asked why Bulatović is controversial to them, but not one of the candidates accused of defending Duško Šarić, Democrats told "Vijesta" that they do not know who represented whom.

"This is what DF MPs talked about. We do not know which candidate it is, because no one connected any lawyer by name with any client. The Democrats did not nominate a single member, other parties did, so this question is best addressed to those who nominated them, and now they are trying to discredit them", they pointed out.

Democrats ask if it is normal for a lawyer and former chairman of the statutory commission of a party to be a member of the TS for a term of at least three years.

"Is it normal for anyone, except for the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS), which built its system that way, that the lawyers of the leaders of political entities and the closest relatives of high-ranking party officials are members of the TS? Of course not. Because of all of the above, we will never allow the politicization of TS, nor will DPS's Milivoje be replaced by DF's Milivoje or any other party's Milivoje. TS and all prosecutors will be independent and popular, not private and party. If this is not the case, then we are not talking about change and improvement", they believe.

Bečić's party called on the DF to choose five "highly moral" and "non-party" candidates for TS.

"We will not propose anyone, but let everyone know that we will also not support any party person. It is a classic manipulation of those who themselves proposed all five candidates, and we accepted four of the five. And let them propose the fifth candidate themselves, but he cannot be a party man", they say.

When asked how to get out of the newly created situation, the Democrats answered for "Vijesti" that the solution is very simple.

"For everyone to do what we did - for no party to have a TS party member and control over TS. And the matter is resolved in five minutes. Those who want to do otherwise, good luck, but they can't do it with us", they say.

MP and head of the GP URA Parliamentary Club, Miloš Konatar, called on the MPs to give the maximum contribution in order to reach a consensus and elect a new TS as soon as possible.

"Because it is our legal obligation. "Electing an impartial and depoliticized TS remains our priority and URA is fully committed to that goal," he told "Vijesta".

Konatar states that the new TS is a basic prerequisite for delivering concrete results in the fight against crime.

"I cannot understand when in politics 'we cannot see the forest from the trees'. Again, I repeat the clear position of GP URA - that the need for a new, independent and professional TS must be greater than any individual," he underlined.

Lawyer and former Minister of Justice, Dragan Šoć, told "Vijesti" that the stalemate in the negotiations on the new TS is a political issue.

"When there is no trust in institutions, then everyone wants to put a 'paw' on them, to control them in some way. And this is one of those examples. 'This candidate is ours, this one is not ours'. 'This one may be pure genius, but it's not ours'. "This one is an ignoramus, but he is ours"... That is why the selection of new TS members does not depend on the quality, references and expertise of the candidates, but on someone's political will", he said.

Amendments to the Law on State Prosecution stipulate that the TS has 11 members - five each from the ranks of prosecutors and prominent lawyers and NGOs, and one representative of the Ministry of Justice.

Šoć: The Prosecutor's Office should be part of the executive branch

Šoć believes that the prosecutor's office should be a branch of the executive power. "It should have been - and that is now impossible to do because the Constitution has been changed - returned to the jurisdiction of the Government. The government should be responsible for the functioning of the prosecution, just as it is responsible for the functioning of customs, inspections, etc. However, there was apparently a crazy idea that VDT should be elected in the way it is now, and then the logic started that TS should be elected in the same way. That, quite simply, led to the blocking of the system. Will we ever realize that we have created a system that does not work, that is, a system that is easy to block? Now we are paying the price of political nonsense", he points out.

The former Minister of Justice, Zoran Pažin (DPS), announced two years ago that the Government has no jurisdiction over the work of the prosecution because constitutional changes have deprived it of all mechanisms to determine responsibility for the results it has.

"Participating in the work of the Venice Commission, I was strongly opposed (in 2013) to such a solution that has no basis in the most developed modern democracies," he said then.

Pažin said that in the constitutional systems of the most developed democratic countries, the prosecution is an integral part of the executive power, precisely because, as he explained, the executive power would be responsible for the state of criminality in society.