Members of the Committee on Security and Defence today have held a control hearing of Supreme Public Prosecutor Mr Ivica Stanković, Minister of Interior Mr Goran Danilović, Director of Police Administration Mr Slavko Stojanović as well as of Director of National Security Agency Mr Dejan Peruničić. The Committee has been informed on the activities undertaken by these bodies in cases of unsolved murders in Montenegro, and on this occasion special attention has been paid to the issues of mutual cooperation and coordination of competent state bodies in procedures of solving the said criminal offences.

Based on the consolidated discussion of the two items of the agenda, the Committee adopted the following with a majority of votes:

1. The Committee requests continuation of activities aimed at achieving better results in resolving all existing cases from the state bodies in charge of procedures of solving criminal offences of murders in the previous period, in the context of the discussion held at the meeting;

2. The Committee estimates that full inter-institutional cooperation among the Supreme Public Prosecutor’s Office, Ministry of Interior, National Security Agency, and other state bodies is required in order to solve these criminal offences;

3. The Committee notes the need for improving the overall capacities of state bodies in the subject field and insists on timely planning of financial funds for improvement of material and human resources which would contribute to achieving better results;

4. Respecting the high level of social danger of the criminal offence of murder and in that regard undermining of the fundamental right to live in Montenegro, based on the reports and information by the subjects of parliamentary oversight, in the upcoming period the Committee will estimate the need for continuation of control hearing on the subject topic.

In the context of discussion on the current security situation in the Municipality of Kotor and the undertaken activities of competent state bodies in that respect:

5. The Committee noted that the security situation in the Municipality of Kotor had been undermined by the latest events and that professional activities which would lead to a complete stabilisation of the security situation in this municipality needed to be increased, which required full coordination and effective action of all actors of the security sector;

6. Noting that the human resources capacities are limited in the Police Department Kotor of the Police Security Centre Herceg Novi within the Criminal Police Station and the Police Station, the Committee assessed as necessary the initiation of the procedure for filling vacancies as soon as possible, as well as the initiation of amendments to the Rulebook on Internal Organization and Systematization of Work Positions, based on detailed analysis of actual needs;

7. The Committee expects from the participants in the meeting to achieve better results as soon as possible, as a result of planning and continuous activities from the previous period, in order to disable actions of organised crime groups which represent threat to the security environment in the Municipality of Kotor and beyond.