Podgorica, (MINA) – Supreme State Prosecutor and President of the Prosecutorial Council Milorad Markovic is attempting to discipline and silence the Parliament through pressure and unlawful influence, said Parliament Speaker Andrija Mandic.

Earlier, in the opinion signed by Markovic, the Prosecutorial Council assessed that Mandic had threatened the independence of a state prosecutor with his statement regarding the arrest of former Minister of Education Vesna Bratic.

In his response to Markovic, Mandic stated that the Council, when reviewing the complaint and issuing an opinion, was obliged to apply the provisions of the Constitution according to which an MP cannot be held criminally or otherwise liable, nor detained for expressing an opinion or voting in the performance of his parliamentary duties.

Mandic said that everyone has the right to freedom of expression, and assessed that the reason for the Council’s opinion is clear and that it is reflected in the “obvious intention to silence the legislature”.

He added that such an action represents an attack on MPs’ freedom of speech and “an attempt to silence the legislative branch, which elects the supreme state prosecutor”.

Mandic said that this directly violated his constitutionally guaranteed right to freedom of opinion and political activity.

“I have already told you and I will say it again – you are elected and dismissed by the Parliament, and you, with this act, are endangering the constitutional balance and the principle of separation of powers in Montenegro”, Mandic pointed out.

He said that the prosecution is not and will not be the fourth branch of government.