We deem decision of the Basic Court in Niksic, which today has passed a temporary measure to return Nikola Vukcevic into the Council of RTCG until completion of validity of the procedure, to be encouraging as it was previously carried out by the Basic Court in Podgorica in the case of illegally dismissed member of Council of RTCG Goran Djurovic.
Such judicial decisions, in the atmosphere of unrecorded pressures of the ruling party, represent a powerful impulse for return of trust in judiciary.
Parliament of Montenegro and its MPs shall not be above the law and judicial decisions. Possible obstruction of authorities to respect judicial decisions and laws of this country would further damage the state interest of Montenegro. Therefore, we expect the Parliament, i.e. the ruling majority to urgently and consistently apply judicial decisions, which also means halting the procedure of appointing Ivan Jovetic to the place of Nikola Vukcevic, in order to prevent further complication of an already quite complex situation which system was brought in by unlawful decisions of the ruling majority.
Furthermore, we believe that Ivan Jovetic, as a member of academic community, does not wish to carry a mortgage of his appointment in these circumstances and that he will position himself towards this in accordance with the public interest.
Conduct of the court in the cases of illegally dismissed members of Council of RTCG is not only in the focus of interested national public but also of the international one and will significantly affect the assessment of rule of law system in the forthcoming Report of EC on Montenegro, and thus will have an enormous influence on further credibility of negotiation process.
Ana Novakovic, Executive Director, Centre for Development of Non-Governmental Organisations (CDNGO)
Daliborka Uljarevic, Executive Director, Centre for Civic Education (CCE)
Stevo Muk, President of MB, Institute Alternative (IA)
Zlatko Vujovic, President of MB, Center for Monitoring and Research (CEMI)
