15/2/2018 PARLIAMENT OF MONTENEGRO TO BE PENALIZED FOR FAILING TO REINSTATE DJUROVIC
The deadline given by the Basic Court in Podgorica to the Parliament of Montenegro to execute the injunction and reinstate Goran Djurovic to the position of a member of the RTCG Council expired yesterday, on 14th of February.
Djurovic’s lawyer Dalibor Tomović submitted this morning to the Basic Court in Podgorica a proposal for financial punishment of a responsible person in the Parliament and the Parliament as a body for failing to enforce the court’s decision. Tomović requested the highest sentences bearing in mind severity of the offense and particularly ruthless attitude of the Parliament towards the judiciary, in the form of public misrepresentation and humiliation of the court’s decision.
The Law on Enforcement and Securing of Claims stipulates in Article 230 that the court shall allow an appropriate deadline under the writ of enforcement for the debtor to meet the obligation and threaten to impose a pecuniary fine if fails to meet its obligation within the stipulated period.
A pecuniary fine range is from 200 euros to 2,000 euros for the responsible person within state body and from 2,000 euros to 20,000 euros for the state body failing to execute a court’s decision. The law prescribes that when assessing the amount of the pecuniary fine within the stipulated limits the court shall take account ”the importance of the action that the judgment debtor is obliged to make, as well as of other circumstances of the case” (Article 230, p. 6).
HRA warns that the ruling coalition’s decision for the Parliament to disobey the court’s order on injunction in the case of Goran Djurović, in addition to their public announcements, represents an extraordinary political pressure on the Council of the Basic Court in Podgorica, which is yet to decide on the Parliament’s appeal to the order of injunction. Such unhidden disregard of court decisions and exerting pressure on the court is inappropriate for a democratic state that, as a member of the Council of Europe, is obliged to secure the rule of law and seeks to become a member of the European Union.
