It has been more than a decade since MANS filed its first criminal complaint against the former Mayer of Podgorica, Miomir Mugoša, under suspicion that he had committed a multi-million city budget fraud in the case of “Carine“. During all this time, competent Prosecutor’s Office had complete documentation in its possession, on the basis of which the harmful work of selling a construction land in Stari aerodrom had been completed.
For that reason, we are worried that it took more than 10 years for the Prosecutor’s Office to prosecute Mugoša in a case that is fairly simple from the criminal and legal standpoint, and represents a textbook example of corruption in the procedure of selling the property of the Capital City.
Thus, it will be interesting to see for what the Prosecutor’s Office will charge Mugoša and in what way they spent a decade, which is how long the investigation of this case lasted. Also, we are aware of the fact that the moment of the indictment has little to do with completion of the investigation proceeding, which is an additional concern, bearing in mind previous practice of the Prosecutor’s Office when it comes to prosecuting high-ranking public officials and criminals related to them.
On the other hand, we hope that the Prosecutor’s Office had enough time and knowledge to draw up an indictment slightly better that the ones against Šarić and Kalić, as well as that the former Mayer Mugoša will not be given the luxury to avoid deserved punishment for violating the law because of negligence of the Prosecutor’s Office.
We also hope that the proceeding against Mugoša will not share the same destiny as the one launched against his party colleague Svetozar Marović, whose epilogue is that Montenegrin state authorities are now waiting for Marović to cure his depression in Belgrade’s hospitality facilities, and then bring him to justice and prison in Spuž.
Former Mayor of Pogorica is someone who was labeled as a corrupt public official during his term of office, while MANS alone has filed several criminal charges against him over the past ten years. Consequently, there is a huge interest of public, and Montenegro’s Prosecutor’s Office is expected to serve the justice and not reduce the entire procedure to another “cleaning” of resume carried out by the Special Prosecutor’s Office, as we had the opportunity to see so far.
We wish to believe that the Prosecutor’s Office has not reached an agreement with Mugoša yet, as well as that the fact that he has not been arrested yet does not represent one of the items in that agreement. We think it is completely unusual for someone accused of multimillion fraud not to be arrested during filing of indictment, while in other cases, a complete charade is made out of arrest, followed by television cameras.
We believe that the processing of a public official such as Mugoša, with the full use of police and prosecutorial power, even after a decade of investigation, would send a clear message that the justice is equal to all, and that there are no privileged and protected ones in the Prosecutor’s Office. We also believe that Mugoša deserves a fair, public trial, not only in the case of “Carine”, but also for other numerous wrongdoings during his term of office. Additionally, we believe that Montenegrin citizens should not be served with another public show and bad plea agreement in which Mugoša, just like his party colleagues, would get away with a milder sentence.
Finally, this is an opportunity for the Prosecutor’s Office to address the issue of responsibility for such prolongation of the investigation, as well as the fact that at one point the criminal charges were dropped, despite numerous evidence, and Mugoša was able to finish the harmful work.
Dejan Milovac
Director of Investigation Center
MANS
