Final verdict of the Higher Court in Podgorica, passed four months ago, and delivered only yesterday to the accused journalist Petar Komnenic, confirmed the first instance verdict of the Basic Court in Podgorica, convicting Komnenic of a crime of defamation due to his allegations presented in the article “Judges under surveillance – why the police had been wiretapping judges Ivica Stankovic and Radovan Mandic”, by a private lawsuit filed by plaintiff Ivica Stankovic, the Supreme Court judge and former President of the Higher Court in Podgorica.

Judgment of the Higher Court is disappointing, mainly because its formal justification does not indicate in any way that the arguments from the appeal had been seriously considered, nor the standard established in the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights that a journalist should not be required to prove the absolute truth of his/her allegations, but only that s/he had reasonable grounds to believe their accuracy.

In addition, neither the Higher Court nor the Basic Court has taken into account the fact that the topic Komnenic wrote about – wiretapping of judges and disappearance of a case file on the application of special investigative measures from the Higher Court in Podgorica – is of significant public interest, which required a special restraint when restricting freedom of expression of journalists.

We believe that this ruling represents a violation of freedom of investigative journalism, and hope that it will be the last conviction for defamation prior to the announced decriminalization of this crime.

HRA calls upon the competent state prosecutor once again, to investigate Komnenic’s allegations and evidence presented in this trial, containing serious indications that the Montenegrin judiciary carried out illegal activities, such as:

1) the testimony of a former judge of the Higher Court in Podgorica, Radovan Mandic, that a former colleague of his and an investigative judge of the Higher Court in Podgorica, Hamid Ganjola, informed him that he himself had approved wiretapping of Mandic, and that “half the judges” of the Higher Court had been wiretapped;

2) written correspondence between the then investigative judge Ganjola and then special prosecutor Stojanka Radovic, proving the fact that the case file regarding the secret surveillance measures, that judge Ganjola was in charge of, “disappeared” between the court and prosecutor’s office;

3) indictment against the accused for murdering the police inspector Scekic, stating that the judges of the Higher Court in Podgorica illegally allowed the accused to visit each other while in custody; etc.

We remind that the Supreme State Prosecutor (SSP), Ms. Ranka Carapic previously refused to provide HRA access to information on whether any investigative action has been taken on this occasion, which is why we have filed a suit against the state before the Administrative Court of Montenegro.

(For more information on our strife to get access to information on any investigative action with regard to this as well as other human rights related investigations, please see: /?p=497. Follow up: the SSP issued another decision rejecting the request of access to information, which had been supported in the second instance by the former Minister of Justice, Mr. Miras Radovic. Therefore, HRA filed a suit before the Administrative court arguing for the right of the public to receive any kind of information on the status of investigations in those significant cases of human rights abuse.)