The state of Montenegro is responsible for the unsolved murder of Duško Jovanović. If it did not kill him, that is, ordered his murder, it is responsible for the fact that in the last twenty years no effective steps were taken to investigate it. On the contrary – there were omissions that indicate the intention to protect the remaining murderers from being found responsible, especially the person who ordered the murder.
As with war crimes, apparently there was neither political nor prosecutorial will to shed light on Jovanović’s murder. Although it can be guessed why these were absent during the government of DPS, at the time of the murder and until the end of August 2020, when the will of prosecutors was equal to political will, it is unclear why it was not shown in the last four years.
To date, none of the “reform” governments – those of Krivokapić, Abazović, and Spajić – have hired a foreign expert to help with the investigation. As a reminder, accepting the HRA initiative, the Commission for Monitoring Investigations of Attacks on Journalists asked the Government to hire such an expert back in 2018 (6 years ago). Admittedly, previous Prime Minister, Mr. Abazović, was the only one who pompously announced the engagement of an expert. Krivokapić did not show even that sort of interest, while Spajić’s government said nothing about it to date.
Why was the expert never hired?
In 2016, the government of Milo Djukanović announced a EUR 1 million reward for information that could lead to the solution of the murder. Are the circumstances in the country whose police force is constantly led by an acting official now serious enough to convince some witness to entrust it with his life?
At the same time, it was never said that anything had been done to verify the legality of the work of the state prosecutors who were responsible for the investigation.
It seems that the only hope for progress in the investigation is to make it a requirement for Montenegro’s accession to the EU. There is certainly plenty of time it.
The public is not aware of possible answers to questions the Human Rights Action publicly posed to the state prosecutor’s office in 2016;
It cannot be reliably concluded from the submitted information and its supplement whether the actions referred to by the Human Rights Action in its analysis from 2016 were ever carried out;
The Prosecutorial Council points out the importance of Article 135 of the Law on the State Prosecutor’s Office prescribing the relationship with the public, and is expecting feedback regarding the reporting of the Human Rights Action so as to make the actions of the competent prosecutor’s office more transparent, to the permitted extent;
From the submitted information, the Prosecutorial Council concluded that no foreign services were engaged in the specific case, i.e. that the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was not engaged, which response was submitted to the High State Prosecutor’s Office in Podgorica by the Police Administration.
