Debate on the report on the work of the Judicial Council: "The arrest of leading people in the judiciary is embarrassing for the state"

The resignation of the minister without portfolio Adrijan Vuksanović (HGI) has been confirmed, thus terminating his position as minister

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Photo: Screenshot
Disclaimer: The translations are mostly done through AI translator and might not be 100% accurate.
Ažurirano: 15.11.2022. 15:43h

The Assembly is debating the report on the work of the Judicial Council and the overall situation in the judiciary for 2021, which members of the current parliamentary majority strongly criticize.

The report was explained by the president of the Judicial Council, Vesna Simović Zvicer.

At the beginning of the session, the Speaker of the Parliament, Danijela Đurović, stated the resignation of Minister without portfolio Adrijan Vuksanović (HGI), which ended his function as a minister.

During the discussion, the members of the majority recalled the arrests of leading people in the judiciary, evaluating it as "shame for the state".

Dragan Bojović (DF) said that the former president of the Supreme Court for many years, Vesna Medenica, was arrested in April, and she was released to defend herself on Friday.

"For 17 years, Medenica was a 'god and a club' in the judiciary, 'and it will be again if, with luck,' this is what Milo Đukanović's regime is desperately singing these days, which calls the institutions of the system institutional rot. He is trying to destabilize the state and call all institutions into question Well, they won't be able to, DPS president, your network has started to crack," Bojović said.

Milosava Paunović (SNP) said that, after Medenica was released from detention, citizens rightly asked how many judges they could trust to judge impartially, "when the judges listened to their president without question".

She appealed to her colleagues to find a consensus and complete the Judicial Council.

She told Simović Zvicer that by changing her residence, she sent a bad message ahead of the elections in Šavnik.

"It could have waited, that month, for the elections to pass, because now we have an absurd situation where elections are repeated from Sunday to Sunday, and there are also physical confrontations. From the position you cover, you should also take care of these things." said Paunović.

Boris Bogdanović (Democrats) said that the former Judicial Council is the product of rotten political agreements and compromises of the parties that held power in 2014.

He said that the Judicial Council was elected according to the political-matchmaking model - "You give me a member of the Judicial Council, I give you a member of the Council of the Central Bank, you give me a member of the Judicial Council, I give you a place in the State Audit Institution".

"Those were evil and terrible times and they have not happened again," Bogdanović said.

As he said, the product of this Judicial Council is the president of the Commercial Court, Blažo Jovanić, who was arrested on suspicion of creating a criminal organization.

Branko Radulović (PzP) said that in order for Montenegro to become a functional state, it must have an independent judiciary.

"To our tragedy, the last line of defense of the thieving and anti-Montenegrin 30-year-old system is the so-called judiciary. That is our tragedy. It used to be monolithic - the police, the prosecution, the judiciary... The police have sobered up a bit and the prosecution, the ANB has not yet, and the judiciary sleeps like a dead sleep. Vesna Medenica and Jovanić are not exceptions but the rule," said Radulović.

Vesna Simović told Zvicer that she failed the exam a long time ago.

"I read your report as long as my stomach could take it and threw it in the basket. Then I compared the report of the EC. It says that no progress has been made in the judiciary, that you have illegally taken apartments, that you are electing court presidents for the fourth, third, hundredth time. .. Who did this? Surely the main racketeer Vesna Medenica, but she couldn't do it without you, without your silence or approval. You represent a black box, you freed Šarić and Kalić and many others. Not only that, you gave them the right to not be convicted never again for that," he stated.

He said that many are now referring to the Venice Commission, "which is corrupt in many ways".

Radulović said that Ranka Čarapić and Vesna Medenica are in the chain of responsibility for the murder of Duško Jovanović.

He believes that a Special Court against organized crime should be formed.

The Vice-President of the Assembly Branka Bošnjak (PzP) said that now there are cries of chaos, that nothing is working...

"DPS was a master of improvisation. Now that the government has changed, everywhere there was a scratch, everything was rotten. We knew that the judiciary was rotten for a long time. This was heard as far as Brussels, so they finally saw what it was all about. The shame of one state that the President of the Supreme Court was in the Investigation Prison, that the President of the Commercial Court is still in prison," said Bošnjak.

According to her, Medenica's "fierce" posture after being released from prison is a message to someone that she will not be silent.

"I encourage her not to be silent," said the Bosniak.

Vladimir Martinović (Democrats) said that he did not mind that Simović Zvicer voted in Savnik, if she also voted in Savnik in the previous elections.

"If you haven't, then you are part of this election tourism," he said.

Andrija Popović (LP) appealed to treat the representatives of the Judicial Council with respect.

He announced that political games are the main reasons for the blockade of the Montenegrin judiciary.

Suljo Mustafić (BS) reminded that in Montenegrin courts there are still no adequate, and in some cases no verdicts on war crimes on the territory of Montenegro, or those in which Montenegrin citizens outside of Montenegro participated or those in which Montenegrin citizens died.

"There are no verdicts for Štrpce, Kaluđerski laz, Morinj, for deportation," he stated, and added that for BS, this report is unacceptable, just like the previous one.

In the report of the Judicial Council, it was stated that, as in the previous period, during the reporting year, the work of the Montenegrin judiciary as a whole, as well as of the Judicial Council, was limited due to the pandemic caused by covid 19, but also due to the multi-month strike of lawyers.

"In particular, the courts had a lot of downtime, due to the decision of the Bar Association to suspend the provision of legal aid, as a result of which a large number of scheduled hearings were postponed. In this part, as in all previous years, we highlight the major problem of the accommodation capacities of the Judicial Council and the Secretariat, which are using space owned by the Central Bank of Montenegro. During the reporting period, the President of the Council pointed out to the competent institutions that the members of the Council and the employees of the Secretariat do not have the basic conditions to maximally fulfill the tasks and activities within the competence of the Council, including the preparation, implementation and monitoring of the implementation of all entrusted tasks , which was particularly pronounced during the covid 19 pandemic," the report says.

Aleksa Bečić (Democrats) said that organized crime and corruption cannot be stronger than one state, if it does not want it.

He said that he was very disappointed with what they witnessed in the previous period.

"The leaders of our judiciary ended up where they ended up, on the docks. And for that we needed the help of international partners, if it weren't for Europol, changes in the prosecution, days and months would have passed..." he said.

He said that now those who claim that some act is unconstitutional will not allow the Assembly to elect the judges of the Constitutional Court in a few days, and they have not challenged any candidate either professionally or morally.

"We are ready. We will vote for all four candidates. Why is it controversial to make that institution functional in a few days?" Bečić asked.

He said that he hopes that "someone will come to their senses" and support the proposed candidates.

Genci Nimanbegu (Forca) said that court processes last for years and that this should not happen.

"Judges used to elect this chamber. The judiciary must be independent," Nimanbegu said.

Simović Zvicer, in her closing speech, said that the Judicial Council "still functions" and that it was not that there were no results.

She said that she did not feel comfortable that they chose Medenica, they could not have known what was happening, but that the presumption of innocence should still be respected.

"Since you talked about various pressures, that she decided instead of the Judicial Council. I have to tell you that you are wrong, I know what happened at the sessions, no one ever put pressure on me, we did agree, we did argue, we used to "maybe we had heated discussions, but I don't think the public should be aware of that. It's something that should stay inside the house where we work," she stated.

Answering the question "where is she from in Šavnik", she said that every biography says that she was born in Šavnik.

"All the property that belongs to me is located in the most beautiful village in Montenegro, which is Bijela near Šavnik. I didn't just come here. I was registered in the voter's list there before, various life circumstances led me to other cities, not only in Podgorica," she said.

She explained that since the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption found that she violated the law because she did not register two cars, "which do not exist", one of which she gave to her brother who scrapped it three years ago.

"I've never had another car in my life, a Renault from '92, '93, I don't know where it came from in my name, but they told me I had to deregister them. Now, completing any administrative obligation in Podgorica is a nightmare. I tried three times to check out those cars, to no avail. Since I don't have time to wait half a day, I decide to go where I used to finish in ten minutes, it happened towards the end of the summer, after that this circus started that happens and I I will stay there," said Simović Zvicer.

She said that she did not vote this time for objective reasons, but she believes "that there will be an opportunity and that I will vote every next time".

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