Nenad Koprivica, Executive Director of CEDEM, participated the meeting with representatives of the NGO sector, organized on January 21 in Villa "Gorica", by the Supreme State Prosecutor Ivica Stankovic, with the aim of improving cooperation and partnerships with NGOs.
The meeting was, in addition to representatives of NGOs, attended by Special State Prosecutor Milivoje Katnic; Head of the High State Prosecutor's Office in Podgorica, Vesna Jovicevic and Head of the Basic State Prosecutor's Office in Podgorica, Ljiljana Klikovac. In his speech, Mr. Koprivica said that emphasis should be placed on efficiency and consistency of the work of the Special State Prosecutor's Office, warning that the plea agreement should be avoided in cases of organized crime and corruption, unless the claimant has a case supported by strong evidences or the defendants helped in resolving the serious cases or collecting evidence against the organizers of criminal groups. Also, g. Koprivica pointed out that:
- Cooperation between the prosecution offices and the police must be more efficient, to ensure quality of prosecutorial investigation. Special attention should be paid to the quality of the evidence during the preliminary procedure and the court proceedings, in order to avoid withdrawing from the prosecution in the final stages of the process.
- Work of Supreme State Prosecutor’s Office and Prosecutorial Council should be more transparent, that means that the decisions on the appointment and dismissal of prosecutors, as well as the decisions of the Commission for Code of Ethics of the Prosecutor's Office should be published regularly. There are some developments in terms of transparency of prosecution offices: opening of web portal and regular publishing of press releases.
- Public trust in the work of the prosecution offices needs to be higher. It is necessary to provide more information on the work of courts and prosecutors 'offices in the public, through greater involvement of their PR managers.