Podgorica, (MINA-BUSINESS) – Deputy Prime Minister Momo Koprivica said that the Higher Court’s decision that the statute of limitations has not expired in the Telekom case is an important victory for justice, accountability, and the institutional determination of the state to confront corruption and abuses that for years caused damage to the public interest.

“This process came about thanks to the Government’s firm position at the meeting held on 2 October last year, to initiate criminal prosecution in the capacity of a subsidiary prosecutor on behalf of the state, as the injured party in this corruption affair,” Koprivica said in a press release.

Koprivica, who is also Chairman of the National Council for the Fight Against Corruption, said it is important to emphasize the exceptional value of the legal interpretation and arguments presented by the Protector of Property and Legal Interests of Montenegro in the complaint submitted to the prosecution.

“Based on those findings, the National Council for the Fight Against Corruption, at its thematic meeting on the Telekom case, prepared a proposal for the Government to prosecute the perpetrators of corrupt criminal offenses in the Telekom case, using the remaining and final legal option provided under Article 59 of the Criminal Procedure Code, with the aim of securing justice and an institutional conclusion for a corruption scandal that also reached international proportions,” Koprivica added.

According to him, from the very beginning the Government and the National Council for the Fight Against Corruption maintained a clear position that the state, as the directly injured party in this case, must not allow such a serious affair to be left to the statute of limitations, oblivion, or institutional passivity.