This is to inform you that the judge of the Court for Offences in Podgorica, Maja Rakočević, ruled in abstentia that Vanja Ćalović would be fined €600 because in July of last year, during a performance following the failure of the courts to rule on the “euro for euro” law, she applied a sticker to the building of the Constitutional Court reading ‘Constitutional Court of the First Family.’
Such a brutal violation of the law and limitation of the right to be informed about accusations and rights to legal defence, which are guaranteed by the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, demonstrates that it isn’t only the Constitutional Court that can be qualified as belonging to Montenegro’s ‘First Family’ [Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic, his brother Aco Djukanovic, and their sister Ana Kolarevic].
Judge Rakočević, in a ruling reminiscent of the Inquisition, scheduled the trial on its own with only one police officer, who was the only one to provide testimony as ‘evidence,’ giving him full confidence and handing out a sentence of €600. Additionally, judge Rakočević, in an unprofessional move, took as an aggravating factor in her ruling the weight of the violation, which indicates that the judge lacks even the most basic knowledge needed for carrying out such an important position.
We want to recall that all judges for Court for Offences are chosen by the executive in a way that contradicts European standards. This case, therefore, underlines how some of these judges ‘apply’ the law and how ‘capable’ they are to guarantee a free trial.
Besides the crude and open violation of the right to defence, the Court for Offences has crudely injured the right to freedom of expression as well and the right to peaceful assembly (rights also guaranteed by the European Convention and Montenegro’s Constitution).
Moreover, Judge Rakočević didn’t hesitate to falsely state in her decision that Vanja Ćalović did receive a summons from the court. The court had previously stated that the invitation was left in front of her doorstep, since she wasn’t home during the delivery. Nevertheless, Ćalović never received the invitation, nor was any summons left at her door, nor were the regulations on how to deliver a summons respected.
Due to such crude and open violations of fundamental human rights, today I submitted a request to rule again on this case, and a complaint to this illegal and scandalous decision by Judge Rakočević. Judge Rakočević and the Council for Offences of Montenegro now have a simple task: to annul this Inquisitorial ruling, to either modify or rescind it, or alternatively to continue violating human rights in order to protect someone else’s private interests.
Veselin Radulović
MANS Legal Representative
