The allegations by the Supreme State Prosecutor Ivica Stankovic made at the opening of the Days of State Prosecutors do not correspond to the facts and show that the State Prosecution has no capacity to admit unbiasedly to the public what the situation in the area of the fight against crime in Montenegro is. We remind the public and Mr. Stankovic that mistakes in the prosecution’s indictments are the main reason why rarely initiated proceedings for organized crime offenses end in acquittals. The mistakes in the indictments cost and will cost Montenegrin citizens millions that are paid to persons the prosecution was not able or willing to accuse legally and professionally. That is why the Supreme state Prosecutor should be much more cautious when boasting about the quality of indictments in public because the “quality” of the indictments has so far not enabled sentencing any of the persons recognized by the international public as perpetrators of organized crime. Instead, the “quality” of the indictments, about which Stankovic is publicly boasting, costs a million, whereas launders biographies of persons publicly recognized as perpetrators of the most serious criminal offenses and ensures that they can never be tried again.
On the other hand, prosecutors have not answered to anyone for making mistakes in these most significant proceedings, even though Stankovic himself, after being elected as the Supreme State Prosecutor, announced that their responsibility would be questioned. That is why Mr. Stankovic would have to explain to the public, instead of praising the prosecution, what is the reason for the prosecutors’ mistakes in the indictments. Furthermore, Stankovic is obliged to explain to the public why the accountability of the prosecutors who made mistakes out of ignorance or for personal gain have so far not been determined. Also, the Supreme State Prosecutor has to explain the public why a number of prosecutors that enabled the statute of limitation, which is the reason charges were dismissed and the citizens of Montenegro paid the damages and costs of the accused persons, was not held accountable. Until then, the prosecution cannot boast about concrete results in fighting grand corruption and organized crime.
The results of financial investigations are very scarce, the number of unsolved professional murders is increasing, explosions are common in the streets of Montenegrin cities as a result of clashes between criminal groups, numerous grand corruption cases gathering dust in the archives of prosecutors’ offices, investigation in Telekom affair has not given any results for 13 year now, the affair Recording has remained unresolved and those that were involved continue applying the same methods of abuse. All of these, as well as many other unsolved cases of grand corruption that cost Montenegrin citizens hundreds of millions of euros, suggests that there is no basis for Stankovic’s statement that prosecution deals with perpetrators of criminal offenses.
Instead of effective investigations and high-quality indictments that would result in convictions and permanent confiscation of property from perpetrators of high-level corruption and organized crime activities, in practice the prosecution applies plea agreements more often in which prosecutors agree penalties below the mandatory minimum with perpetrators of the most serious criminal offenses, which rather sends a message that crime pays then avert anyone from committing criminal offenses.
That is why the Supreme state Prosecutor Ivica Stankovic and all state prosecutors lack reason to be proud or full of praise because their previous work and idleness show that the prosecution has no capacity to conduct an effective investigation and prepare an indictment that would present evidence at the trial on the basis of which one of the perpetrators of high-corruption and organized crime activities would receive a reasonable and just punishment and on the basis of which those persons would be permanently deprived of the property gained through criminal activities.
Legal Representative of NGO MANS
Veselin Radulovic, lawyer
