The president of the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) parliamentary group, Andrija NIkolic, assessed that the ruling majority is not ready to take responsibility and fix "what it messed up" with the retirement of judge Dragana Đuranović from the Constitutional Committee.
He made this assessment at today's meeting of the Committee on Political System, Judiciary and Administration, where the agenda included a consultative hearing of candidates who applied for the Public Call for the election of two members of the Prosecutorial Council from among eminent lawyers who are not lawyers, or from among lawyers, proposed by the Bar Association of Montenegro.
The session will continue in the coming days, after a break. The deputies did not start the second item today - the consultative hearing of the candidate for a member of the Prosecutorial Council from among lawyers, proposed by the Bar Association of Montenegro.
Chairman Vladislav Bojovć from the Democratic People's Party (DNP) said that no one from the NGO sector applied.
A candidate from the ranks of lawyers who are not attorneys, Veselin Šćepanović, said that he currently serves as a public bailiff in the municipality of Bar, but also that he worked in the state prosecutor's office for 10 years, and that he was a judge at the Basic Court in Bar.
Another candidate from the ranks of lawyers who are not lawyers, Sekula Raičević, said that he has been employed at the Faculty of Political Sciences since its inception, but that since 2017 he has held the position of secretary of that higher education institution, and that he is a member of the Board of Directors of the University of Montenegro.
Europe Now Movement (PES) MP Vasilije Čarapić asked Raičević which mechanism of control over the prosecutor he considered most important at the moment, and he replied that the big problem was the lack of active communication.
As he pointed out, the prosecution has never been freer than it is today.
"Although there is no direct political or public pressure, premature interpretations of the activities carried out by the prosecution are occurring. My view of the situation is the necessity of inter-institutional cooperation between the prosecution and the legislative and executive branches," said Raičević.
Čarapić asked the candidate what he believed was the guarantor of the independence of the prosecution service - constitutional principles or the Prosecutorial Council.
Raičević responded that the Prosecutorial Council is a mechanism at the state's disposal, but that its efficiency needs to be improved.
"I mentioned the legal framework in that sense because by repeating the story of vetting, which should be an absolute necessity for justice, and not a political fight for revenge, we can achieve some of the goals - both preserving independence and controlling the lawful work of members of the prosecutorial organization," he said.
Čarapić also asked Šćepanović about the mechanisms for controlling the prosecutor, to which he replied that it was a matter of applying norms.
"I think that the implementation of the law has always been a problem for us. There is the Law on the State Prosecutor's Office, but also other laws. In this law, I would add that the level of control over prosecutors should be increased through existing norms," he said, adding that in addition to annual reports, it is necessary to provide periodic reports.
Čarapić asked Šćepanović about the case of his car being set on fire ten years ago, and whether there was a court case.
He responded that there was no prosecutorial or judicial action, but that certain individuals were being questioned, and that he knew that this was related to work on a specific case.
"I had a notification from the MUP that they had a witness, so he disappeared," he said.
The PES MP also asked him why he had his property registered.
Šćepanović responded that his father bequeathed all his property to him when he was 16 years old, and that he also bequeathed it to his son when he turned 18.
Darko Dragović (PES) asked Raičević to comment on the lack of interest among young lawyers in being part of the prosecutorial network.
He replied that the reason for this is the relationship between responsibility and stress at work, and that salaries and wages are not equivalent.
Dragović also asked whether the decision on the status of prosecutors should be made by the Prosecutorial Council or by an independent body that would conduct vetting.
Raičević said that vetting must be carried out in phases, and that it must start from the top, and therefore - a special body formed for that purpose.
Dragović asked Šćepanović for clarification of the claim that controls must be more frequent, and asked him whether the quality control was good.
He responded that the status of the injured party has changed in court practice, and that defendants are trusted more.
New Serbian Democracy (NSD) MP Dejan Đurović noted that a big problem is that more judges are leaving office than candidates are applying. He asked Šćepanović if the first "rotten boards" in the judiciary were revealed in Bar, when judge Milorija Đukić-Pejović was murdered in 2005, and asked Raičević if the fact that he is not happy in the judiciary "can give it momentum".
Šćepanović said that he was on sick leave when the judge's murder occurred.
"Maybe it was an event that showed that there were 'rotten boards', but I think it was a mistake not to react in time. Maybe it was a mistake not to start vetting then," he pointed out.
Raičević said that members who were not in the judiciary bring "pluralism of opinion."
Jasmin Ćorović from the Bosniak Party (BS) referred to the recent case of the beating of a boy from Sarajevo, and asked Šćepanović what role he sees the Prosecutorial Council in suppressing national intolerance, and whether he considers such problems important, and Raičević how he assesses the prosecutor's reaction to the erection of a monument to Pavle Đurišić.
Raičević responded that several members of other nationalities live on his street in Berane, but that he had not noticed any fear among members of the Islamic faith after the monument was erected.
"The erection of the aforementioned monument was not the will of the vast majority of the citizens of Berane," he said.
When asked about the prosecutor's reaction, he stated that he knew as a citizen, but that, based on what he knew from the media, the prosecutor's office responded appropriately.
Šćepanović announced that the Prosecutorial Council may request a timely response to such cases.
DPS MP Andrija Nikolić said that it seemed to him that for some time there had been obstruction of the election of members of the Prosecutorial Council, in order to "form an appropriate majority in that body."
"A deputy MP confirmed this when he commented on the election of the Supreme State Prosecutor in the cabinet of Prime Minister Milojko Spajić... This simulation of democracy and asking expert questions seems disgusting to me. We have a situation in which the Prime Minister and we, as the parliamentary opposition, signed an agreement that implied resolving the constitutional crisis that was produced due to the fact that the Constitutional Committee unconstitutionally retired a judge of the Constitutional Court... There is still no reaction, the parliamentary majority is not ready to take responsibility and fix what it has messed up," he said.
"Veting should never be carried out too quickly"
Nikolić recalled that in 2013 the Constitution was amended by votes from the government and the opposition, and that the government was supported at that time by deputies from Positive Montenegro and the Socialist People's Party (SNP).
He said that "some were arrested and detained yesterday because of the messages they exchanged."
"How many Sky correspondences have seen the light of day without people even being heard?" he said.
He asked Raičević how he viewed the situation "of people being detained for memes, writing in the media and the like."
The candidate for member of the Prosecutorial Council responded that vetting must be a matter of internal political maturity and must not be carried out quickly.
Bojović said that the mechanism for selecting suitable personnel cost Montenegro a lot.
Nikolić responded that "those who made the changes announced that it would be better," and that his impression was that it was not.
"If one of the leaders of the parliamentary majority tells you that the condition for choosing a prosecutor is his attitude towards a case that has not been concluded in court, what is this, classic pressure on the judiciary? Is it the idea of changing practices that are not good? What does the sentence of the speaker of parliament mean that he will increase the salaries of judges and prosecutors on the condition that vetting takes place?" he asked.
"You can see who intentionally made the item obsolete"
Bojović pointed out that, when they came to power, they took over a system of closed institutions, and that they must be careful when selecting new officials in the judiciary and prosecution.
He asked the candidates if it is determined that a certain prosecutor allows a certain case of organized crime or corruption to become statute-barred, whether they believe that in that case only disciplinary proceedings should be initiated or, if there are reasons, criminal proceedings.
"These are cases that burden society, where citizens have been damaged by millions of euros... We have seen that certain people from the prosecutor's office are accusing certain prosecutors today of the statute of limitations on certain cases, but we also see that the prosecutor's office is acting on cases that were formed by the prosecutors who were indicted," he said.
He also asked the candidates whether they believe that cases filed by prosecutors accused of the most serious crimes, participation in organized crime groups, corruption, etc. should be reviewed.
Šćepanović said that one of the biggest failures in the work of prosecutors is to intentionally let a case expire, and that it can be seen who did it intentionally.
Responding to the second question, he pointed out that these were individual cases, and that it happened that the prosecutor reviewed the cases that came before him and sent them to a higher prosecutor for an opinion.
Raičević said that if there is evidence that someone has behaved corruptly, they should be prosecuted, and that disciplinary proceedings are the first in line to be initiated.
A break was given, and the session will continue in the coming days.
The deputies did not start the second item - the consultative hearing of the candidate for member of the Prosecutorial Council from among lawyers, proposed by the Bar Association of Montenegro.
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