Supreme State Prosecutor's Office on the "Telekom" case: Request for protection of legality filed against the decision of the Higher Court

Based on a reasoned initiative by the Special State Prosecutor's Office (SPO), the Supreme State Prosecutor's Office (SPO) has filed a request for protection of legality against the decision of the Higher Court in Podgorica in the case known to the public as "Telekom", the SPO announced today.

"The decision of the Higher Court in Podgorica by which the Criminal Pre-Trial Chamber determined that the so-called relative statute of limitations for criminal prosecution for the criminal offenses that are the subject of the criminal report filed by the non-governmental organization MANS (Network for the Affirmation of the Non-Governmental Sector) has not occurred, due to the fact that procedural actions were taken in the meantime to discover the perpetrator and the criminal offense that interrupted the statute of limitations, was made contrary to the legal provisions governing the interruption of the statute of limitations for criminal prosecution (Article 125, paragraph 4 of the Criminal Code of Montenegro) and the positions of criminal law theory," the VDT statement states.

The institution, headed by Milorad Marković, said that the Supreme Court of Montenegro had previously taken the position that a procedural action can interrupt the statute of limitations for criminal prosecution only if it was taken against a specific person, by a competent authority or person, for the purpose of criminal prosecution for a specific criminal offense, so, as the Supreme State Prosecutor's Office said, the decision was made in contradiction with established case law.

"The criminal pre-trial chamber of the Higher Court in Podgorica assessed the actions taken in another case, not the case formed against certain persons for certain criminal offenses based on the criminal report of MANS from 2019, so the law was violated and the conditions for filing a request for protection of legality were met," the VDT said.

The position of the Podgorica Higher Court that the "Telekom" case is not absolutely time-barred opens up the possibility that former head of state Milo Đukanović, his sister Ana and several other individuals will soon be heard in connection with the controversial privatization of the once successful state-owned company.

This, the ruling states, refers to the part that deals with the criminal offense of accepting a bribe, which the Đukanovićs, former representatives of that then state-owned company, the HLT fund, the "Monte Adria" company and Hungarian Telecom - Oleg Obradović, Veselin Barović, Damjan Hosta and Tomaš Marvai - are charged with.

The Higher Court in Podgorica announced yesterday that the case known as "Telekom" has not been subject to relative statute of limitations.