CDT filed a complaint: Reconsider the decision of the ODT on rejecting the application from 2018 for signature forgery

The deputy executive director of the Center for Democratic Transition (CDT), Biljana Papović, announced that the non-governmental organization submitted a complaint to the High State Prosecutor's Office today, requesting a review of the decision of the Basic State Prosecutor's Office to dismiss the criminal complaint from 2018 for forging signatures of support for presidential candidates.

They also addressed the head of the Basic State Prosecutor's Office Podgorica (ODT) and the Prosecutorial Council (TS), with a request to review the disciplinary responsibility of the prosecutors in that case.

"We call on the Higher State Prosecutor's Office to urgently initiate appropriate procedures for checking the actions of the prosecutors regarding our criminal report from 2018 and to inform the public about the outcome. The Higher State Prosecutor's Office has an additional responsibility since even today, five years after these events, citizens report the same abuses to us "The behavior of the prosecution in the process initiated for the current abuses can depend a lot on the outcome of this process," said Papović.

"Also, we call on the ODT and TS to review the responsibilities of the prosecutors who worked in this case as soon as possible, bearing in mind that the Law on the State Prosecution provides for a more serious disciplinary offense if the prosecutor does not proceed with the cases within the deadlines prescribed by law without justifiable reason, and due to it becomes obsolete," she added.

Papović said that they found the basis for filing those complaints in the formal confirmation of the rejection of the criminal complaint that they received from the prosecutor's office "a full five years" after it was referred, and in which it is stated that since June 2018, that institution had not undertaken procedural actions in that case, due to which resulted in the statute of limitations of criminal prosecution.

"In the explanation for the dismissal of the criminal complaint, it is clearly stated that the graphologists determined that the signatures of the citizens who approached the CDT and on whose behalf the complaint was filed were not authentic. However, the criminal complaint was dismissed because 'the statute of limitations for criminal prosecution has expired'." , Papović points out.

He reminds that in the campaign for the 2018 presidential elections, they intervened in the protection of the rights of almost 800 citizens whose signatures were forged and personal data misused. "We also submitted the first report to the prosecutor's office on behalf of 54 citizens whose signatures were forged in this election cycle," the announcement concludes.