The member of the Prosecutorial Council (TS), Siniša Gazivoda, resigned from that position today, "Vijesti" has learned.
According to confirmed information, Gazivoda did this because of the restrictions introduced by the new Law on the Prevention of Corruption, and after the negative opinion of the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption.
"The Law on Prevention of Corruption, which was adopted by the Parliament of Montenegro in June 2024, introduced additional restrictions on the performance of public functions in terms of providing services. easily, according to the provisions of the Law on Advocacy, lawyers provide legal assistance, not services, in order to remove any dilemma, I requested the opinion of the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption. However, I received a negative opinion from the Agency in this regard", writes Gazivoda in his resignation letter.
According to him, the aforementioned restrictions, together with the restrictions he imposed on himself "in order to avoid any suspicion of a conflict of interest as a member of the Prosecutor's Council", would prevent him from practicing law.
"...What is my primary vocation and choice", emphasized Gazivoda.
He thanked the Assembly of Montenegro for the trust shown during the election to the position.
Gazivoda was elected as a member of the Prosecutor's Council, from among distinguished lawyers, at the end of December 2021. At that time, his election was supported by 44 deputies. Thanks to the initiatives of Gazivoda, the Prosecutor's Council obtained many important data about the work of the prosecutor's organization.
This is how TS and the public learned that at least 1.000 unlit "live" cases have been collecting dust for years in the archives of the Basic State Prosecutor's Office (ODT) in Podgorica, and that none of the prosecutors was ever tasked with working on them.
After this was discovered, the Prosecutor's Council concluded that information on the number of KTN cases should be obtained from all state prosecutor's offices within 60 days.
It turned out that the Montenegrin prosecutor's office handled as many as 2.208 cases as cases in which they took action, even though the statute of limitations for criminal prosecution had expired because they were sitting in the archives and no one acted on them. The largest number of outdated and allegedly live cases were in the Podgorica Basic Prosecutor's Office, over 1.950, followed by the Rožaj Prosecutor's Office, about 130. There were also outdated, but on paper, active cases in the Podgorica Higher Prosecutor's Office, seven, as well as one in the Special Prosecutor's Office.
Gazivoda also disclosed data from the Podgorica ODT that in 25 cases, where there were over 1.100 injured parties, formed due to the falsification of support signatures after the presidential elections in 2018, the relative statute of limitations began as early as 2021.
It is from the act of the ODT, TU no. 289/23 of 28.3.2023. observed that the prosecution took actions to establish that it was a forged signature - hearing the injured parties and graphological expertise, but not that any action was taken after that, which would lead to the discovery of the perpetrator of the crime. Gazivoda also requested that the TS conclusion oblige the state prosecution offices to publish on the Internet the decisions on delayed criminal prosecution, with anonymization, for the sake of additional transparency.
On his initiative, the Prosecutor's Council requested to be provided with information on the number of cases and the actions taken in the cases formed due to police torture, which the Special State Prosecutor's Office submitted to the High State Prosecutor's Office in Bijela during April, May, June and July of last year. Polje and the Basic State Prosecutor's Office in Podgorica, regarding the criminal offenses of abuse, torture and kidnapping...
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