Milović is not guilty of "leaking" the list of infected people

Employees at the Podgorica Health Center Rade Milović After five years, he was finally acquitted of liability for unauthorized collection and use of personal data of coronavirus patients.

Ten days ago, the Podgorica High Court confirmed the verdict of the Basic Court from April 2021 - that Milović did not commit the criminal offense of unauthorized collection and use of personal data when, at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, a list containing the data of 62 people infected with coronavirus, with their personal identification numbers, became public.

His defense attorney, a lawyer Mladen Tomović, told "Vijesti" that he would file a lawsuit for compensation for damages due to unfounded detention, during a period when the Government was massively violating the right to privacy of citizens. He assessed that Milović had been tortured for the previous five years because the blame for the leak of the list of infected people from the health system fell solely on him. He recalled that the then Government published a list of people in self-isolation on its official website, and the Personal Data Protection Agency issued a controversial opinion that the request of the then National Coordination Body for Infectious Diseases (NKT) to publish names was not in contradiction with the Law on the Protection of Personal Data.

The Constitutional Court ruled in July 2020 that publishing the list of people in self-isolation was unlawful, and after several rulings in favor of citizens, a settlement was concluded with 2.720 people in the amount of 300 euros each as compensation for the violation of personal rights by publishing personal data.

In the High Court ruling from last month, signed by the President of the Council of Judges Boris Savić, it is stated that the first instance court lawfully presented all the necessary evidence and correctly and completely established the factual situation when it acquitted the defendant Milović of the charges that he committed the criminal offense of unauthorized collection and use of personal data.

Milović was employed as a technical maintenance officer for computer equipment in the IT Department at the Podgorica Health Center, and was at home when he was woken up by an SMS message from his boss. Vladimir Tošković which read "call me, it's urgent", after which he saw that his superior had sent him an Excel file from his private email address to his, also private, email address with the content 'send through the system to all IDO'. That file contained a list of people infected with coronavirus, and Milović claimed in court that he did not know that it contained unique identification numbers, nor did he receive any verbal or written warning that it was personal data, and that he was certainly not a person who processes personal data at all, did not know how to handle it, and that it was not his job to take care of it. He also claimed that, in order to fulfill the task entrusted to him by his superior, he had previously converted that file to PDF and named it "positive from the municipality of Podgorica.pdf" because only in this format can it be visible to doctors, and he sent it through the system of selected doctors to everyone, with the note that the list was also visible through this system to medical staff who had their own access code to this system.

Milović did not dispute that he sent the list via the Viber application to two colleagues because they were not at work that day, all in order to inform them of the contents in a timely manner, and not out of any ill intent.

The Court notes that such a defense of the defendant was confirmed by the testimonies of witnesses, his colleagues, who stated that they were employed in the IT sector at the Health Center and that none of them had ever encountered any personal data, and that forwarding certain information, such as the duty schedule, via private emails was their usual way of working.

"Accordingly, and in the opinion of this court, and taking into account the fact that the data submitted to the defendant was in Excel format, which he himself converted to PDF format and named 'positive from the municipality of Podgorica.pdf', that is, that the email in question was forwarded without text by Vladimir Tošković with only the indication 'send through the system to all IDOs' sent to the defendant to his private email address, without any instructions that it was data protected by law, that in the end the defendant had no knowledge that it was protected data, that is, it was not stated in the disputed email, and he was not a person authorized to process personal data, nor could he have been assigned the task of forwarding this data, nor had he encountered such data before in his work, and therefore, the facts established in the proceedings do not make it completely certain that the event took place in the manner presented in the indictment in question, for which the first instance court gave sufficient and valid reasons, which this court also accepts in all respects," it is written in verdict.

The High Court also found that the allegations of the Basic State Prosecutor's Office were unfounded, and that the conclusion that the aforementioned data was protected was unclear, given that witness Tošković stated that he told the defendant when sending it that it was a list of people infected with coronavirus, and that the list itself contained the word "positive." However, the High Court also found that Tošković was decisive in not telling Milović that the disputed list contained protected data, and explained that the aforementioned data should not have been submitted in this way, but that the Institute of Public Health should have forwarded it directly to the selected doctors for their patients who tested positive for COVID-19, which is why the allegations in the complaint of the ODT in Podgorica in this regard appear to be unfounded.

His defense attorney, attorney Mladen Tomović, told "Vijesti" that he would file a lawsuit for damages due to unfounded detention, during a period when the government was massively violating citizens' right to privacy.