Final verdict: The former acting director of the Herceg Novi Health Center was suspended for three months

The Basic Court in Herceg Novi announced that the verdict has become final, by which the former acting director of the Herceg Novi Health Center, Aleksa Đekić, was sentenced to three months in prison for the criminal offense of violation of the right to file a legal remedy.

The verdict of that court from July 3, after the appeals of the defendant and his defense attorney, was confirmed by the verdict of the High Court in Podgorica, announced Suzana Lalović, advisor to the judge and spokesperson of the Basic Court in Herceg Novi.

"A.Đ. was found guilty of the criminal offense of violation of the right to file a legal remedy, because it was established that the defendant A.Đ. was on 02.03.2023 in Herceg Novi, as an official - the acting director of a health institution at the time" Dom zdravlja Herceg Novi' prevented the injured T.Đ, who was employed in that health facility as a nurse, from using the right to submit a submission, in such a way that, after conducting an inspection in the aggrieved party's submission, ordered the secretary NL not to register the aggrieved party's submission marked as 'objection of the JZU Dom zdravlja Herceg Novi, n/a acting director A.Đ. from 02.03.2023', which is why the secretary informed the aggrieved party T.Đ. that the submission was not filed because the director ordered her to do so, and she returned it to the injured party without a receipt stamp and reference number," the statement reads.

"The act of committing this criminal offense consists in preventing another person from using the guaranteed right to submit a petition, report, lawsuit, complaint, objection, other legal means as well as another submission, in a specific case by an official in the performance of his duties. Prevention can be achieved in different ways, and in the specific case, the defendant committed the criminal act in such a way that, as an official - the then acting director of the Herceg Novi Health Center, he ordered LN, who is the secretary of the Health Center in charge of receiving the mail, so that the subject complaint of the injured T.Đ. is not included in the receipt book", it is added.

"It follows from the explanation of the verdict that the injured party T.Đ. was indeed prevented from using the right to file a legal remedy, which the court undoubtedly established from the testimony of the witness T.Đ. and the witness LN, who unanimously confirm that the witness LN did not mislead the objection of the aggrieved party in question because she was ordered to do so by the director A.Đ., and after a few days the secretary returned the objection in question to the injured party, without a receipt stamp, and after examining the said objection T.Đ., the court undoubtedly determined that it does not have the reception stamp of the Herceg Novi Health Center nor the reference number," says Lalović.

"From the explanation of the verdict, it follows that the subject complaint of the injured party, in which she essentially stated that in the decision on the disciplinary punishment of her colleague - a nurse, an untruth was uttered against the injured party, undoubtedly represents a submission, the prevention of which is protected by the criminal offense in question, having in view of the fact that the limits of criminal protection in Article 177 paragraph 2 in connection with paragraph 1 of the Criminal Code of Montenegro are set broadly, as they also include the prevention of others from using the right to submit any any kind of submission, even one that does not have the character of a legal remedy in the sense of refuting a certain decision," the announcement reads.