Suspended special prosecutor Lidija Mitrovic was sentenced to seven months in prison for abuse of official position. That verdict was pronounced by the Council of Judge Nenad Vujanovic of the High Court in Podgorica. Mitrovic accused Mitrovic of abuse of office in the Klap case. She also has to pay €617 for court costs to the account of the state of Montenegro. Her lawyer Zoran Piperovic announced after the verdict that he would file an appeal.
Explaining the verdict, Vujanovic said that Mitrovic was obliged to establish the rule of law and protect the legal order, and cited the fact that she is the mother of three children as a mitigating circumstance. According to him, she was convicted of obtaining benefits for four people, by applying the institute of deferred prosecution in relation to them, and thus they were not prosecuted before the court.
He stated that Mitrovic knowingly acted contrary to the law, and emphasized that during the proceedings it remained unclear how the people, who are alleged in the indictment to be privileged, were exempted from the decision of Mitrovic in relation to others and how the institution of deferred prosecution was applied in relation to them and what the criterion for that was.
Vujanovic said that Mitrovic dismissed the criminal charges even if she was not responsible for it. Instead, he explained, she should have submitted the files to the competent prosecutor’s office.
The defense has the right to file an appeal against this court verdict within eight days.
Corruption