WORLD NEWS FOR MONTENEGRO DIASPORA
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SOURCE:ANTENA M-AUTHOR:M.J. GDNUS
"It is necessary to apply the Constitution and the law, legal acts that have greater legal force than the Fundamental Treaty."
After the monument to Pavle Đurišić, which was discovered yesterday in the village of Gornje Zaostro, was moved to the church, the prosecution should ask the court to issue an order to enter the church and seize the monument, lawyer Veselin Radulović tells Antena M.
He emphasizes that, given that the opportunity to seize the monument was missed during the arrest, it is now necessary to apply the Constitution and the law, legal acts that have greater legal force than the Fundamental Treaty. However, he doubts that this will happen given that, as he states, institutions have behaved more like accomplices in the commission of criminal acts in recent days, which has sent a message that the perpetrators and organizers are stronger than the state itself.
Lawyer Veselin Radulović tells Antena M that in the village of Gornje Zaostro yesterday we could see a series of illegalities and irregularities that took place before the eyes of the public.
"We could see that criminal acts were being committed openly, that in some way state authorities were being defied and the message was being sent that the perpetrators and organizers of these criminal acts were stronger than the state itself," says Radulović.
That the church is stronger than the state was demonstrated yesterday by Metropolitan Metodije of Budimlje-Niksic, who, in the presence of Chetnik supporters, revealed an illegally erected monument to Chetnik commander Pavle Đurišić. After it was ordered that the monument must be removed, Metodije said that the statue would be moved to the church "so that they can come and demolish the church".
Metodije was certainly encouraged to make such a statement by the Fundamental Agreement signed in August 2022 with the state.
One of the articles of the Fundamental Agreement signed by the then Prime Minister Dritan Abazović with the Patriarch of the Serbian Orthodox Church Porfirije states that state bodies cannot take security measures in facilities and spaces owned by the Church without the prior approval of the competent church bodies, except in cases where this is required for urgent reasons of protecting the life and health of people.
Radulović says that the competent bodies missed the opportunity to seize the monument, and that now the problem is that it was brought into the church.
"The state, the competent bodies, the police and the prosecutor's office missed the opportunity, when they deprived the first person, whose land it is, of liberty, to seize that monument, as the object of a criminal act, that is, as evidence in criminal proceedings to seize it. They did not do that, they allowed the monument to be erected and they allowed what we had the opportunity to see to happen," says Radulović.
He also states that he was one of those who pointed out that this article of the Fundamental Law is contrary to the Constitution.
"I still maintain that it is contrary to the Constitution and that provision had to be removed, but unfortunately we did not have an institution there that would have had enough courage, professional and human integrity to make such a decision, I mean the Constitutional Court," he points out.
The prosecution would have to ask the court to issue an order to enter the church and seize the monument.
What is needed now, says Radulović, is to apply the Constitution and the law.
"Whether our institutions are capable of that is another question. So, regardless of the fact that this provision of the Fundamental Treaty is controversial and contrary to the Constitution, I believe that the institution should apply the Constitution first and foremost, and then the law, because these are legal acts that have greater legal force than the Fundamental Treaty. So, in this specific case, the prosecution could ask the court to issue an order, it could and should ask for an order, to enter that church, possibly with searches, based on that order to end it with the police, that is, to confiscate that monument.
I don't know whether that will happen, I personally doubt it will, considering how the institutions have behaved, especially in these past few days where they have acted more as accomplices in the commission of criminal acts, rather than as someone who should prevent criminal acts and sanction their perpetrators," Radulović says.
Due to the attack on journalists, the prosecution should have brought the organizers and the UP officers who silently watched it
He says that the attack on journalists that took place was a terrible act, but what was also bad was the reaction of the institutions, which, as he points out, was lukewarm.
"I heard that the qualification for those persons who were deprived of their liberty was announced, that they committed the criminal offense of endangering security, which is indisputable, but I personally think that there are other criminal offenses, because we saw that media representatives were unlawfully deprived of their liberty, that they were physically and mentally mistreated, that their equipment and means of work were taken away, that they were even threatened with death. All of this should be of importance when making a qualification primarily by the prosecution.
And of course, a professional prosecution would not only deal with the direct perpetrators of these criminal offenses, but would first of all have to take care to bring to justice those organizers who those who enabled all of this and who watched, and even those Police Administration officers who silently watched all of this criminal activity without reacting in any way," said Radulović.
