Movement of People's Trust: Judiciary Fails the Test Again

The decision to lift the pretrial detention of Miloš Medenica - the son of former Supreme Court President Vesna Medenica - and place him under house arrest is not just a legal issue, but "a shameful act that shows the depth of the Montenegrin judiciary's captivity and suspicion of complete corruption," the People's Trust Movement announced.

"Three years without a first-instance verdict in a case that symbolizes the nexus of power, justice, crime and corruption - this is not a coincidence, it is a systematic protection of the privileged and the networked. While ordinary citizens wait in line for justice, pay fines for every little thing and suffer for every mistake, political and judicial power holders peacefully walk free thanks to 'technical errors' and 'expiry of deadlines'. Citizens are tired, disappointed and eager for true, equal and consistent justice - one that does not distinguish between the rich and the poor, the powerful and the disenfranchised," the statement reads.

"Since no first-instance verdict has been issued for him within three years, the legal conditions have been met for his detention to be lifted by force of law. But this legal fact does not change the essence: the judiciary has failed the test again. Their inefficiency and selectivity show that the laws in Montenegro are still applied according to who your parent or political-criminal protector is," they add.

They say that "this is not just a defeat of an investigation - this is a defeat of the judiciary."

"If someone like Miloš Medenica, accused of creating a criminal organization, can avoid prison only because the courts 'didn't have time' to do their job, then it is clear that Montenegro has not yet parted ways with the judicial mafia that has shaped the fate of this country for decades. Instead of the judiciary being a mechanism for uncovering and pronouncing convictions for evident crimes, it is becoming a tool for laundering biographies, where cases are dragged out until the public loses interest, until the accused are released, and until everything is forgotten. If this practice is not stopped, if arrests are turned into media spectacles that last as long as a movie premiere, and 'releases' become the rule - citizens will lose faith in justice, in the state, and in the truth itself. Without faith in justice, Montenegro will have no future," the statement reads.