A bad indictment acquitted Lepa Medenica

The Prosecutor's Council rejected the proposal for the dismissal of Lepa Medenica by a majority of votes, thus putting an end to the months-long case of the alleged inappropriate influence of the head of the Higher State Prosecutor's Office in Podgorica on the prosecutor Vukas Radonjić.

The members of that body stated that the proposal was rejected due to factual deficiencies in the indictment.

After such a decision of the most important body within the prosecutor's organization, the public was denied an answer as to whether and to what extent there was inappropriate influence on prosecutor Radonjić, i.e. whether something strange and illegal happened in the triangle on October 13-14, 2021 - Basic State Prosecutor's Office - Higher State Prosecutor's Office in Podgorica - Supreme State Prosecutor's Office...

"The Prosecutor's Council said everything with this decision," Medenica told Vijesta yesterday.

Nine members of the TS voted for that body to reject the indictment proposal of the deputy disciplinary prosecutor Tanja Nišavić, while Stevo Muk and representative of the Ministry of Justice Bojan Božović had a different opinion.

After the session, which was closed to the public in the introductory part, the Prosecutor's Council published a statement in which they explained the decision...

"During the preliminary investigation, the Prosecutor's Council determined that the submission of the indictment does not contain a description of the offense from which the legal characteristics of the reason for dismissal arise, such as, among other things, a description of the action and the method of execution of the action that the head of the Higher State Prosecutor's Office is charged with, is not the specified property, that is, the function that the appointed person performs, all of which represent essential elements of the reason for dismissal. Also, in the factual description of the filed indictment, it was stated that the appointed prosecutor allegedly acted contrary to the Law on the State Prosecutor's Office, but no specific norm that could possibly be violated was stated in the TS statement.

Because of this, the Supreme Court decided by a majority vote to reject the indictment, in accordance with Article 453 paragraph 1 in relation to Article 294 paragraph 1 point 1 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.

TS member Stevo Muk said after the session of that body that due to formal and legal reasons, "the proposal of the disciplinary prosecutor to dismiss the head of the Higher State Prosecutor's Office, Lepa Medenica, should not have been rejected."

"I think that the decision that was made today is not a good one, that as the Prosecutor's Council we had to allow this procedure to continue. The decision was made for mostly formal and legal reasons, for which the deputy disciplinary prosecutor is responsible, who drew up an indictment that was not of high quality, but despite that, we had to find a way to unblock this process," Muk said.

The deputy disciplinary prosecutor, in the indictment submitted by TS on May 31 of this year, stated that the head of the Higher State Prosecutor's Office in Podgorica, Lepa Medenica, called prosecutor Vukas Radonjić after midnight and in a "rude and inappropriate manner", contrary to the provisions of the Law on the State Prosecutor's Office , asked him to release two arrested officers of the Police Directorate.

In the indictment, which "Vijesti" had access to, Nišavić claims that the manager of VDT Podgorica, on October 13-14, 2021, exerting influence on Vukas Radonjić, called the prosecutor at 00.08:XNUMX and demanded that he let the freedom of Saša Đurović and Aleksandar Bošković, who were arrested on the order of Radonjić in the case formed on the occasion of the lifting of the ban on entry into Montenegro of persons of security interest - Veljko Belivuk and Marko Miljković.

"Thereby, she performed the actions that represent the reason for the dismissal of the head of the state prosecution from Article 125 paragraph 1. point 3. of the Law on the State Prosecutor's Office", it is written in the indictment proposal of the deputy disciplinary prosecutor, which she submitted to the Prosecutor's Council on May 31 of this year.

In the indictment, Nišavić suggested that a hearing be scheduled before the Prosecutor's Council, to which prosecutor Medenica should be invited, whose responsibility is being determined, as well as witnesses Vukas Radonjić and prosecutors Nikola Boričić and Dražen Burić.

In the indictment, the disciplinary prosecutor ordered that numerous letters and notices that the prosecutors sent to each other - on October 14, 2021, as well as Radonjic's notice that he sent on October 21 to the then deputy of the Podgorica ODT, Nikola Boričić, should be read at the hearing before the Prosecutor's Council. . She also asked to read Boričić's letter dated October 21, 10 addressed to the manager of VDT Podgorica...

The issue of Medenica's dismissal was raised by the Minister of Justice, Marko Kovač, after a stormy session of the Parliamentary Committee for Justice, where the question of the behavior of the prosecutors, but also of the policemen in the Belivuk case, was raised, when Boričić and Radonjić accused the head of the Higher State Prosecutor's Office in Podgorica.

Several prosecutors, police and government officials were heard at the parliamentary body, and due to the fact that someone opened the border for members of the Kavac clan, who a few months earlier, according to SDT's accusations, directly participated in the murder of two people in Spuz.

Prosecutor Radonjić said in front of the deputies that the UP did not listen to his verbal order to arrest two police officers, and that, after he had given the written order, Medenica called him around midnight and asked him to release the UP officers and " accused him of acting illegally".

His words were confirmed by Boričić, the head of the Podgorica ODT at the time, who stated that Medenica "called him three times without success asking for the same thing, and that after that she "turned on Radonjić"...

"I think that the decision that was made today is not a good one, that as the Prosecutor's Council we had to allow this proceeding to continue. The decision was made for predominantly formal and legal reasons, for which the deputy disciplinary prosecutor is responsible, who drew up the indictment that is not of high quality, but despite that we had to find a way to unblock this process", said Muk

They hid behind formalism

The prosecutor's council hides behind formalism, and that is not the way to healing the prosecutor's organization.

That's how the Minister of Justice Marko Kovač commented on the decision to reject the motion to dismiss prosecutor Medenica.

"Regarding today's decision of the Prosecutor's Council to reject the indictment proposal... I am of the opinion that hiding behind strict formalism and thus preventing the continuation of the dismissal procedure... and revealing all the circumstances of the case, referring to the alleged shortcomings in the indictment proposal by of the deputy of the disciplinary commission, is not the way to healing the prosecutor's organization", announced Kovač.

He stated that all the necessary elements necessary for further processing were included in his initiative for dismissal.

"As the proposer of dismissal, and respecting the independence of the Prosecutor's Council, I accept the decision that was made. Without the intention of further commenting on it, although as such it does not have the character or force of a court ruling, I am afraid that the decision in this case has created a dangerous precedent that may affect the protection of the functional immunity of state prosecutors, especially in relation to the pressures they may suffer within the framework of the prosecutor's office. This is especially a matter of concern in situations such as the one in question, where higher-ranking prosecutors could exert inappropriate and illegal influence on lower-ranking prosecutors without consequences," said Kovač.