(Podgorica, 30 October 2012) – Acting on the initiative of lawyer Veselin Radulovic, authorized representative of the NGO MANS, the Council for Citizen Control of the Police (CCCP) ruled that the police has violated its legal authority when it summoned Dejan Milovac on 12 July 2012 and while collecting statements on 16 July 2012.
The Council confirmed that the polices justifications for doing so are illogical, without any basis and unsupported by material evidence. From the written evidence available, the Council confirmed that the call that the police submitted to Milovac was not clear, was confusing and inadequate for the purposes for which he was summoned. Furthermore, the warning of the police in case of failure to appear was also not clear. There was no indication of what Milovac should have expected from the police if he failed to respond to the summons, nor was it stated in relation to what he was being summoned for, leaving open the possibility of police abuse and the potential for repeated summons without a clear end.
Similarly the Council confirmed that the minutes of the notification obtained form Milovac were composed on the basis of the Criminal Procedure Code and that it was read to Milovac on the basis of the same act, which contradicts the police’s claims that Milovac wasn’t summoned on the basis of alleged criminal responsibility. The Council noted that not too long ago, at the end of last year, it had established that the police had violated the law in relation to Vanja Calovic, the ED of MANS, once again suggesting to the police that when applying police powers it should faithfully follow the stipulations of the Criminal Procedure Code.
This case demonstrates that the police is also illegally carrying out repression against NGO MANS activists, regardless of whether or not the Police Director is Veselin Veljovic or Bozidar Vuksanovic and regardless of whether or not the police is under MUP control, that is Minister Ivan Brajovic.
We would like to remind everyone that the police overseen by Veljovic last year violated its legal authority when it illegally summoned Vanja Calovic in order to find out who posted the infamous video recording of Safet Kalic’s wedding [in which high-ranking Montenegrin officials were seen celebrating with underworld figures]. Violating the right to privacy of MANS employees, the police then collected information concerning communications that occurred on an IP address used by MANS.
A year later, under Vuksanovic’s leadership, the police is again violating its legal authority through the illegal summons it directed towards Dejan Milovac. This time the police did so because Milovac was using his freedom of speech and expression to denounce the Constitutional Court of Montenegro as the Constitutional Court of the First Family. The first time the police was defending the interests of Safet Kalic and the state functionaries that were among the wedding guests, while the second time the police appears to have been defending the interests of the First Family and the judges that effectively sanction and legalize their corruption.
Therefore, instead of directed its repressive power and police authority against the fugitive Safet Kalic, who has been branded a narco-boss by important police and intelligence institutions, and against the First Family and its First Bank (whose dealings have also been qualified as organized crime and corruption at the highest level), the police seems instead to be hiding organized crime and corruption, trying instead to scare those who draw attention to these deviant trends. Because of such a police force, someone like Safet Kalic was possible, because of such a police, something like the First Family was possible as well as their First Bank. Because of such a police force, Montenegro has a Constitutional Court that legalizes the costs of corruption at the highest level. Because of such a police force, it is the institutions of other countries that are the only ones uncovering corruption and organized crime in our country.
Nevertheless, besides the open readiness and the resoluteness of the police to continue violating basic human rights, the NGO MANS will continue to draw attention to organize crime and corruption, with the conviction that a time will come when the responsibility and motives of the police leadership and those who are supposed to monitor their work is established.
