The allocation of apartments to employees in the judiciary and prosecutor's office should be decided by the Judicial and Prosecutorial Councils, not the state.
This was stated by the candidate for member of the Prosecutorial Council from the ranks of lawyers, proposed by the Bar Association of Montenegro, Sanja Radulović, at the session of the Committee for Political System, Judiciary and Administration.
The President of the Bar Association, Danilo Mićović, initially said that Radulović was their proposal.
"The Bar Association believes, or rather I personally as its president believe, that we have proposed the right candidate," he said.
Radulović announced that she graduated from the Faculty of Law in Podgorica, after which she got a job as a lawyer in an IT company where she spent four years, after which she began an internship in the legal profession, and that after taking the bar exam in 2016, she was registered in the directory of lawyers the following year, and that she founded her own office in 2020, and that in 2022 she founded a law partnership.
Europe Now Movement (PES) MP Darko Dragović asked Radulović if she was satisfied and if not, what could be changed regarding the prosecutor's expertise and professionalism.
New Serbian Democracy (NSD) MP Dejan Đurović asked why the number of lawyers who want to be prosecutors and judges is lower than the number of judges and prosecutors who leave their jobs.
Democratic Montenegro MP Nikola Rovčanin asked Radulović to state how he thinks the independence of the prosecutorial organization should be ensured.
"The Prosecutorial Council has a wide range of powers. And all this in light of the developments that we have had in practice - that certain prosecutors are the subject of criminal proceedings. We have very obvious behavior of certain prosecutors when it comes to the 'Telekom' affair. This is part of the influence of certain power structures on individuals in the prosecutorial organization in the previous period, and on the other hand, we have a danger in terms of independence from practical, public persecution of certain subjects, especially opposition ones. We saw yesterday and in recent days where the prosecutorial organization is being stigmatized and attacked and where common law is being invoked in terms of certain revenge. And the third thing - do you think that in the last few years there has been a shift in the independence of the prosecutorial organization in the Special State Prosecutor's Office (SDT), bearing in mind that the chief special prosecutor has international and domestic recognition and in what way do you think the work can be improved?" said Rovčanin.
The chairman of the committee and MP from the Democratic People's Party (DNP), Vladislav Bojović, asked the candidate whether she believed that, if a prosecutor abused his position by contributing to a procedure becoming statute-barred, disciplinary proceedings should be initiated, but also whether it was necessary to initiate a review of the work of prosecutors accused of the most serious crimes, and whether cases they had kept in a drawer should be reopened.
Radulović pointed out that the public has the impression that there is only SDT.
She added that she sees a few changes to the law as good, and the lack of changes to the law that would make prosecutors' work easier, primarily the Criminal Procedure Code, as bad.
Radulović pointed out that a major problem is the lack of space.
"Regarding the independence of the prosecutorial organization, what we are all witnessing is public commentary and selective criticism that is extremely unfavorable and inappropriate when there is a verdict that is not in line with the high expectations of the public," she said.
She added that it is necessary to examine why something remains unprocessed, if it has been there for a certain number of years.
Bojović asked whether the prosecutor's office should deal with bankruptcy proceedings, but also how it views the allocation of apartments to prosecutors by the executive branch, or whether it views it as an allocation to suitable prosecutors.
Radulović pointed out that, if it is assessed in bankruptcy proceedings, as well as in other proceedings, that there are elements of a criminal offense, they need to be prosecuted.
When it comes to apartments, she said there are other ways.
"Should the holders of the state prosecutor's office and the judiciary be provided with better conditions? Yes, but through a different arrangement. That the Judicial and Prosecutorial Councils deal with this in agreement with credit institutions, and not in connection with the state. That way, we would dispel suspicions that they are working according to someone's dictate," she said.
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