NGOs Women’s Safe House, Human Rights Action and Women’s Rights Center submitted initiative to the Supreme State Prosecutor, Ivica Stanković, to file a request for protection of legality against a final judgment convicting the defendant, Moldovan citizen Svetlana Čabotarenko (S.Č) in October 2014 in absentia to one year in prison for alleged perjury. S.Č. testified in a criminal proceeding in 2002 as a victim of trafficking in human beings about her physical abuse, compelling to prostitution and trafficking. The Basic Court Podgorica in the meantime issued an international arrest warrant against her.

Ljiljana Raičević, Tea Gorjanc-Prelević and Maja Raičević stated in a joint statement: “The judgment of the Basic Court in Podgorica judge, Goran Đuković, confirmed by the High Court in Podgorica judges Liljana Pavlićević, Hasnija Simonović and Evica Durutović, represents an example of biased conduct unworthy of a judge in a democratic society. We are still waiting for the Judicial Council and the Bar Association of Montenegro to act upon our submitted complaints and evaluate the ethics of conduct of these judges and lawyer Bosko Laličić, who represented the defendant in this case ex officio, by not even appealing against the conviction. We hope that the Supreme State Prosecutor will use his authority and prevent that this judgment, presenting a dramatic violation of the human right to a fair trial, remains part of Montenegrin legal system on its path towards the membership of the European Union.”

For more information on the conduct of judges and attorney at law in this case, please consider the analysis of the final judgment.