Podgorica: "It would be scandalous"

Prime Minister of Montenegro, Zdravko Krivokapi, could decide on the election of the President of the Administrative Court at the session of the Judicial Council on February 25, several lawyers told Vijesti yesterday, while the Judicial Council did not provide an answer whether this could be disputable.
The very thought that the head of the executive power is present, let alone deciding on the holders of functions in the judiciary - is in itself nonsense, not to mention the constitutional-political scandal, says former Prime Minister Dusko Markovic.
He was Minister of Justice when the amendments to the Constitution of Montenegro were adopted in order to ensure the independence of the judiciary, as well as after the Law on Courts and the Judicial Council was amended with the same goal.
At that time, the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe submitted an opinion on the proposed amendments and proposed amendments to the law, which was mostly adopted.
Former Minister of Justice Dusko Markovic said in a written statement for "Vijesti" that "the Constitution of Montenegro prescribes the composition of the Judicial Council, and precisely because of the unambiguous constitutional provision, an interpretation derogating from the highest legal act and its goals of judicial power must not be allowed".
"The interpretation that the Prime Minister, as the interim head of the Ministry of Justice, as such determined by an administrative act, and in the case of a vacant ministerial position, should be a member of the Judicial Council - is wrong and unsustainable because the Constitution left the possibility and procedure for electing a new Minister of Justice who would sit on the Judicial Council. The minister only, no one else," he said.
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