On the occasion of the announcement of the Government of Montenegro related to the decision of the European Court for Human Rights to reject the petition of Vanja Calovic Markovic regarding the violation of the right to privacy by uncontrolled police access to the M-tel database, I hereby inform you the following:
Instead of the announcement in which it is emphasized that the petition to the European Court was declared unacceptable only because the Montenegrin courts, after its submission, had found that the acts in question had been contrary to the Constitution and the laws of Montenegro, the Government of Montenegro should announce to the public why no one was held responsible for the massive violation of basic human rights.
I remind the public that the petition in question was filed at a time when the agreement between the police and M-tel was kept hidden from the public and when its content was not available to the petitioner. The Government of Montenegro is leaving out the fact that, after filing the petition with the European Court of Human Rights, this agreement was declared null and void under the lawsuit of Vanja Calovic Markovic. The Government of Montenegro also leaves out the fact that the provision of the Criminal Procedure Code that made possible the violation of human rights was declared unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court right after the initiative of the NGO MANS. Therefore, it is beyond doubt that the police brutally violated the basic human rights of all citizens on the basis of the agreement and unconstitutional provisions of the CPC. It is also beyond doubt that this agreement and the provision of the CPC were annulled at the initiative of Vanja Calovic Markovic and the NGO MANS. Therefore, the Government’s announcement that the agreement between the police and M-tel has been put out of effect by the solutions of the Agency for the Protection of Personal Data and Free Access to Information is therefore untrue. The agreement was abrogated by a final court verdict rendered on the complaint of Vanja Calovic Markovic, which established the nullity of the agreement.
Therefore, the activities of Vanja Calovic Markovic and NGO MANS in this case were focused on the protection of basic human rights and the annulment of acts that enabled the police to violate those citizens’ rights.
Therefore, we are pleased that these acts have been annulled and that we have been able to prove that the executive power has been violating basic human rights of the citizens of Montenegro for years without any control. Certainly, the fact that the Montenegrin courts have shown their readiness to determine that the acts in question are contrary to the Constitution and the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Freedoms before the decision of the European Court is encouraging. However, the complete absence of responsibility of the executive power, which has violated basic human rights of the citizens of Montenegro for years is rather concerning.
Attorney of the NGO MANS and Vanja Calovic Markovic
Veselin Radulovic, lawyer from Podgorica
