N10.T4 – ACQUITTAL FOR JUDGE MRDAK AND CLERK MARKOVIĆ
HRA NEWSLETTER 10 – TOPIC 4
Dragan Mrdak, a judge at the High Court in Bijelo Polje, and Sonja Marković, a court clerk at the same court, were acquitted of charges of abuse of official position and falsification of a verdict in proceedings conducted before the High Court in Podgorica.
The Special State Prosecutor’s Office alleged in the indictment that a three-member panel of the High Court in Bijelo Polje last year sentenced two defendants for abuse of position in economic operations to nine months in prison each, but that Mrdak falsified the decision and issued a new verdict dismissing the charges due to statute of limitations. He allegedly instigated Marković to enter this information into the official record book, even though she knew it was untrue.
After the verdict was announced, Stefan Jovanović, the defense attorney for Judge Mrdak, briefly explained the court’s decision.
“The court found that the actions of Judge Mrdak did not constitute elements of the criminal offenses he was charged with, but rather amounted to an error that could possibly be subject to another type of proceeding.”
The Special State Prosecutor’s Office expressed dissatisfaction with the verdict.
“We cannot accept that something can be justified as a judicial error. It is undisputed that a judge, like every holder of a judicial function in Montenegro, can make a mistake, but this is far from a mistake. This is a criminal offense for which, according to the Criminal Code, the statute of limitations for prosecution cannot occur. This should have been known to every judge of the High Court, in Bijelo Polje or Podgorica, and even if it wasn’t known, on the day of the council session, March 8 last year, the statute of limitations had not begun under the general provisions,” said Radonjić.
At the trial, Mrdak defended himself by claiming ignorance regarding the alleged verdict that triggered the statute of limitations, stating that his colleagues from the panel – judges Ivan Adamović and Dragan Dašić – were also involved. The two judges denied these claims.
Prosecutor Radonjić insists that the testimonies of the two judges from the panel align with the evidence, unlike Mrdak’s defense.
“Why the first-instance court does not accept their testimonies is unclear to me. It seems that the High Court in Podgorica, which made the decision, does not accept the statements of its fellow judges from Bijelo Polje, meaning it seems they are not telling the truth,” said Radonjić.
Dragan Mrdak was temporarily suspended from his position as judge until the criminal proceedings conclude, a decision made by the Judicial Council last year.
English