The decision of the Parliament of Montenegro on the retirement of judge Dragana Đuranović was not made in accordance with the Constitution and the law, because there was already a decision of the Constitutional Court (US) from June, not to inform the Parliament that the judge had fulfilled the conditions for retirement, he says in the podcast of the Center for investigative journalism of Montenegro (CIN-CG) Miodrag Iličković, member of the Judicial Council and former judge of the Constitutional Court.
However, he emphasizes that the decision of the Constitutional Court, from June of this year, is a gross violation of the Constitution, because judges who had to recuse themselves, "because they were deciding on behalf of the state about their own rights" took part in its adoption.
Then the judges of the Constitutional Court decided by majority that the Labor Law applies to them, for retirement, which would enable Judge Đuranović, as well as Judge Desanka Lopičić and Judge Budimir Šćepanović, to retire a year later.
Judge Đuranović, who was recently terminated by the Parliament of Montenegro due to fulfilling the conditions for retirement, decided on her own, which led to a crisis between the government and the opposition.
Iličković believes that the Constitutional Court is a closed and non-transparent institution, and that all that we are seeing is just a conglomeration of illegal and unconstitutional behavior by representatives of the Assembly and the Constitutional Court.
"If Montenegro intends to build an independent judiciary, which will not be a party whip, all three branches of government must sit down and make a plan on how to improve the situation," says a former judge of the Constitutional Court.
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