N9.T4 – PRESIDENT OF PARLIAMENT CALLS FOR VETTING OF THE JUDICIARY
HRA NEWSLETTER 9 – TOPIC 4
The President of the Parliament of Montenegro, Andrija Mandić, advocates for the implementation of vetting of judges and state prosecutors by the end of the year, stating that without this, Montenegro cannot meet the high standards achieved by European Union countries. He made this statement during a meeting with the Minister of Justice, Bojan Božović.
He noted that the Montenegrin judiciary is contaminated by criminal influence and corruption challenges, and that increasing the transparency of the system is essential.
Therefore, he supports establishing clear facts about the assets owned by judges, prosecutors, and their family members, and whether these assets correspond to their lawful income.
Mandić added that vetting also involves checking possible connections to organized crime, analyzing the lifestyle of judges and prosecutors, assessing professional qualifications, and many other controls aimed at reforming the judicial system.
“During the conversation, I told Božović that no time should be wasted regarding vetting, and that it should be carried out and completed by the end of the year,” Mandić posted on the X platform.
As he pointed out, while members of Parliament and local assembly members undergo regular checks by voters every four years, which he assessed as “a form of public vetting”, judges and prosecutors, who are appointed to their positions until retirement, have so far not been required to undergo any form of substantive control.
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