(Podgorica, 6 February 2013) – Montenegro’s President Filip Vujanović continues to withhold the names of convicts he pardoned in the last few years, in spite of the public’s obvious interest in knowing which individuals have earned the ‘mercy’ of the head of state.
At the end of last year, MANS requested from the office of Montenegro’s President information concerning the pardons issued by Vujanović in the period between 2006 to 2012. The request related to the pardon of individuals that had committed the most serious criminal offences, including money laundering, the acceptance and offering of bribes, abuses of official position, stock market fraud, tax evasion, etc.
We were told by the office of Montenegro’s President that they couldn’t meet our request since we had made previous information obtained from their office public. This caused problems for those individuals pardoned by Vujanović in the past. Vujanović’s office told us that they had to meet several times with the affected individuals in order to calm them and convince them that they shouldn’t undertake “negative actions” aimed at MANS (who they saw as responsible for releasing this information to the public).
Having learned from that experience, and not from the law, Vujanović’s office has forbidden us any access to this information. MANS has submitted an appeal to the Administrative Court as a result of this response in late January 2013, requesting that the President nevertheless reveal to the public the names of those pardoned by him.
We believe that the public has the right to know which criminals were pardoned by President Vujanović, especially when we know that in the past individuals – now known as close collaborators of global criminal groups – received such treatment.
In fact, as the public knows, in June 2009 Vujanović pardoned the now deceased Dragan Dudić (aka ‘Fric’), who has been identified as one of the key people in the entourage of fugitive drug lord Darko Šarić (suspected of laundering the money of Šarić’s criminal group through his companies). Such a decision was taken at the suggestion of the Ministry of Justice, but in opposition to Montenegro’s High Court that had urged Vujanović not to extend a pardon to Dudić.
While neighbouring countries are investigating Duško Šarić’s narco-clan – including ties linking senior state officials and politicians to Šarić and his close collaborators – attempting to establish who exactly assisted or was responsible for the laundering of cocaine money, including logistical and other forms of support, Montenegro has unfortunately failed to follow suit to date.
In contrast, there still remains a suspicion that the highest state institutions are still being used as support for individuals and organized crime groups to protect their interests.
Examples – including the latest episode concerning Minister Gvozdenović’s suspicious extension of permits to Šarić’s MAT Company, as well as suspicions that the First Bank (belonging to Prime Minister Milo Đukanović’s family) was used to launder cocaine money by extending credit to the Šarić brothers – point to the fact that the country is still in the tight embrace of organized crime. It also points to the fact that official Montenegro has failed to show even the minimum of will to alter this state of affairs in the near future.
