The Minister of Justice is putting undue pressure on the High Court

In the High Court in Podgorica, there are no abuses in the distribution, they said from that court. They spoke on the occasion of the announcement of the Ministry of Justice, in which it is stated that the Minister of Justice, after the extraordinary inspection, will inform the Acting Minister of Justice about the findings. the President of the Supreme Court with the aim of possibly starting the procedure to determine the responsibility of the President of the High Court in Podgorica, Boris Savić.
"After the inspection, a record of the extraordinary inspection was drawn up, which, after notifying the public, was submitted to this court, and in which it was correctly stated how cases are distributed. The distribution of cases in the High Court in Podgorica is done in the same way and before and after the election of the current president. The random allocation of cases is fully represented in the election of trial judges and presidents of second-instance panels," the response states.
As indicated, it does not exist with the investigating judge, due to the on-call system, and in the criminal non-trial panel, it is assigned on the basis of the annual schedule, which stipulates that, if necessary, all judges can participate in the schedule.
"In the specific case, which the minister emphasizes, several judges also participated in the random allocation through the electronic system, in accordance with the annual schedule, on which occasion the case was assigned to judge Šćepanović, while informing the commission that the judges could not participate in the schedule due to reasons for exemption, and which participated", he writes in the response.
In the High Court in Podgorica, they claim, there are no abuses in the distribution.
"The inspection's conclusion that such abuses are possible is correct, as abuse can be done in any system, and in the specific case of the accused Vesna Medenica, which the minister emphasizes as a reason for examining responsibility, a random allocation between several judges has just been carried out. The implication that regarding abuse is the result of ignorance of the working methods and functioning of the judicial information system of the administration, and the obvious dissatisfaction with certain decisions made by the judges of the High Court, which is why petitions were written that were used for the extraordinary inspection," the court's response reads. .
They point out that "it is high time that all institutions, which are responsible for protecting the independence of the judiciary, raise their voices because of the inappropriate pressure exerted by the Minister of Justice through the media".
"First of all, according to the High Court in Podgorica, and in which, among other things, he openly states that in cooperation with the Special Prosecutor's Office, he will review the decisions of the High Court," the response stated.
I.B.