Podgorica, (MINA) – Supreme Court of Montenegro President Valentina Pavlicic announced that there are no constitutional or legal grounds, nor internationally recognized standards that justify the participation of a judiciary representative, an individual judge or a court president in a control hearing in the format in which the invitation was sent to the Podgorica High Court President Zoran Radovic.

Radovic previously announced that he would not attend the joint control hearing of the Committee for Political System, Justice and Administration and the Security and Defense Committee regarding the escape of Milos Medenica.

In her reply to the Parliament of Montenegro, Pavlicic wrote that Radovic had informed her that he had received an invitation to attend a control hearing and assessed that his appearance before the Parliament could violate the autonomy and independence of the court.

“The Supreme Court of Montenegro states that there are no constitutional or legal grounds, nor internationally recognized standards that justify the participation of representatives of the judicial authority, individual judges or a court president in a control hearing in the format in which the invitation was sent”, Pavlicic pointed out in a letter to Zoran Mikic, deputy chair of the Committee for Political System, Judiciary and Administration.

She assessed that accepting the invitation would represent a violation of the principle of separation of powers and pose a risk to judicial independence, as well as a deviation from well-established international democratic standards, including those of the Venice Commission, and a violation of the credibility of reforms aimed at strengthening the rule of law.