The higher court in Podgorica announced that "the insinuation about alleged abuses in the allocation of cases" in that court is unfounded.
The High Court reacted to the announcement of the Ministry of Justice, which stated that the Judicial Inspection, after an extraordinary inspection in the High Court in Podgorica to check the random distribution of cases, concluded "that the random distribution of cases was called into question by the introduction of the practice that the president of the court decides on composition of the court panel".
"After the inspection, a record of the extraordinary inspection was drawn up, which, after notifying the public, was submitted to this court, and in which it was correctly stated how cases are distributed. The distribution of cases in the High Court in Podgorica is carried out in the same way and before and after the election of the current president. The random assignment of cases is fully represented in the election of trial judges and presidents of second-instance panels. The same does not exist with the judge for investigation, due to the on-call system, and in the criminal extrajudicial panel it is assigned based on an annual schedule that provides that if necessary all judges can participate in the schedule," the announcement states.
It is added that in the specific case, which the Minister of Justice Marko Kovač emphasizes, "multiple judges also participated" in the random distribution through the electronic system.
"In accordance with the annual schedule, on which occasion the case was assigned to judge Šćepanović, with the introduction of the commission which judges could not participate in the schedule due to reasons for exemption, and which did participate".
The announcement also states that "there are no abuses in the distribution in the High Court in Podgorica".
"The inspection's conclusion that such abuses are possible is correct, as abuse can be committed in any system, and in the specific case of the accused Vesna Medenica, which the minister emphasizes as the reason for examining responsibility, a random allocation between several judges has just been carried out. The implication that regarding abuse is a consequence of the minister's lack of knowledge of the working methods and functioning of the judicial information system, as well as obvious dissatisfaction with certain decisions made by the judges of the High Court, which is why petitions were written that were used for an extraordinary inspection. It is high time that all institutions, which are responsible for protecting the independence of the judiciary, raise their voices because of the inappropriate pressure that the Minister of Justice exerts through the media, primarily towards the High Court in Podgorica, and in which, among other things, he openly states that in cooperation with SDT to review the decisions of the High Court", the announcement concludes.
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