In the last four years and in two months of this year, the Supreme Court of Montenegro has issued 1.006 decisions on the disqualification of judges of that court, half of which relate to 2022, the data was submitted to the Action for Social Justice (ASP), ASP announced.
The NGO said that the Supreme Court stated: "The Supreme Court has special records, or special (IV-3 Su) registers in which decisions on the disqualification of judges are recorded, and an inspection of them determined that 2021 decisions on the disqualification of judges were made in 101, 2022 in 504, 2023 in 131, 2024 in 218, and in January and February 2025, a total of 52 decisions on the disqualification of Supreme Court judges."
The ASP said that, based on the Law on Free Access to Information, they requested copies of all decisions on the exemptions of judges issued by the Supreme Court in 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, and for the first two months of 2025.
The ASP also said that the Supreme Court points out that: "Given the number of decisions issued in the requested period, this body cannot act in relation to the part of the request that requests the submission of copies of all individual decisions on the disqualification of judges. This is despite the fact that acting on the request in this part implies insight into the court administration register IV-3 Su for each decision individually, then copying it, so that satisfying the request in this part would represent the creation of new information, which is a basis for rejecting the request."
"Due to the refusal to provide copies of decisions, with the aim of denying the applicant the requested information, because it is completely unclear how copying individual decisions constitutes 'creating new information', ASP yesterday filed a complaint with the competent Agency for Personal Data Protection and Free Access to Information due to the incorrect application of substantive law," the ASP statement reads.
The NGO said that according to the Criminal Procedure Code, a judge cannot perform judicial duties if he or she is injured by a criminal offense, if the defendant, his or her defense attorney, the prosecutor, the injured party, their legal representative or proxy is his or her spouse, former spouse or cohabiting partner, or a blood relative in the direct line to any degree, in the collateral line to the fourth degree, and by in-laws to the second degree, if he or she is in a guardian, ward, adoptive parent, adoptee, foster parent or foster child relationship with the defendant, his or her defense attorney, the prosecutor or the injured party.
"A judge may not perform judicial duties even if he/she participated in the same criminal case as an investigating judge, prosecutor, defense attorney, legal representative or attorney of the injured party or prosecutor, or was heard as a witness or expert witness, if he/she participated in the same case in the adoption of a lower court decision or a decision regarding a plea agreement, or in the same court in the adoption of a decision that is being challenged by appeal, as well as when there are circumstances that raise doubts about his/her impartiality. The ASP has also requested from the Supreme Court, based on the Law on Free Access to Information, all requests for the disqualification of judges in the past four years and for the first two months of this year. According to the Criminal Procedure Code, the disqualification of judges can be requested by the parties, defense attorney and injured party," the ASP said.
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