After two decades since the beginning of the "Telekom" affair and the recent statute of limitations on the case, the government is trying to relaunch it.
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Namely, the National Anti-Corruption Council proposed to the Government to task the Protector of Property and Legal Interests with taking over the criminal prosecution in this case because they believe that the state has been directly harmed here.
But the question is, is this possible and how?
According to the Criminal Procedure Code, which the National Anti-Corruption Council refers to, the state can take over criminal prosecution in cases where it is directly harmed, using the institute of subsidiary prosecutor.
Criminal lawyers, however, point out that in the "Telekom" case this is not possible due to the statute of limitations.
"The injured party, as a subsidiary prosecutor, can take over the prosecution, but the key obstacle here is that the statute of limitations for criminal prosecution has expired and nothing will be gained except that another decision will eventually be obtained in court that will be the same as this prosecutor's decision," emphasized Veselin Radulović, a lawyer.
The Protector of Property and Legal Relations Bojana Ćirović told Television Vijesti that she has not yet received any request from the Council or the Government regarding the possible continuation of the prosecution in the Telekom case.
The Network for the Affirmation of the Non-Governmental Sector (MANS) says that the proposal of the body led by Momo Koprivica from Democratic Montenegro looks like a political pamphlet of limited scope.
"Given that we have not identified and finally convicted the culprits in the 'Telekom' case, at least in Montenegro and from the side of Montenegrin citizens, the question is from whom the state of Montenegro will actually collect the money. Although the Criminal Code allows it to initiate this process, will we have something that is a process for the sake of form again or will we actually have a real possibility for Montenegro to collect the money and from whom, in fact?" said Dejan Milovac, director of MANS.
Journalists who have followed the "Telekom" case from the very beginning agree that during the review of the work of then-prosecutor Saša Čađenović, new elements could emerge on the basis of which the case could be reopened.
"Now, in this process, it could possibly come to the point of whether someone told him to keep that case in a drawer, to translate it for ten years, or whether someone pressured him to do it. So all of these could be some new moments that would allow this case, this affair, to continue through some other proceedings," said Goran Kapor, a journalist for the Nezavisni daily Vijesti.
After the statute of limitations and the previous dismissal of the MANS criminal complaint against former President Milo Đukanović, his sister Ana and several other suspects, the two-year saga of possible corruption in the privatization of "Telekom" has come to an end, for which American authorities have determined that over seven million euros in bribes were paid through false contracts, also linked to "the sister of the then highest government official".
For social actors who have followed the "Telekom" case from the beginning, the statute of limitations is not a surprise, due to, as they say, obstructions and delays in the actions of the judiciary at the time.
However, the surprise is the fact that five years after the change of DPS government, there are still no answers - who enabled the statute of limitations and why there is no responsibility because one of the biggest scandals in recent Montenegrin history has not reached a court conclusion.
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