Montenegro set to promote anti-money laundering and financing terorrism measures, advance justice system

Podgorica, Montenegro (28 February 2014) -- At yesterday’s session, the Montenegrin cabinet approved the Bill on the Prevention of Money Laundering and Financing Terrorism. The main reason for adopting the new act is its harmonisation with recommendations of the MONEYVAL and the anti-money laundering working group, as well as with the relevant European directives. The new provisions precisely define the cases in which actions should be taken in order to verify identity of the client and his/her business, not just of new clients, but also of those with whom business relations have already been established. Among other things, the bill prescribes the possibility of identifying and verifying the customer's identity through a third party, as well as increased amounts of fines.

The Cabinet approved the Bill on suspended execution of sentence and community service sentence. The Government stated that the quality of execution of alternative sanctions and measures significantly contributes to reducing the rate of recidivism, the prison population and, consequently, to reducing the costs.

It was pointed out that a community service must meet the three conditions: that it does not offend human dignity, it is useful to society and that is not done for profit. To this end, the Justice Ministry has already signed agreements with five local authorities, which give the communities a more active role in the criminal justice system and yield immediate benefits from working in public interest, while the convicts are given opportunity to develop a more responsible attitude to society, but also to their own actions.

Report of Montenegro’s Representative to the European Court of Human Right in Strasbourg was also on the government’s agenda on Thursday. According to the report, the court has received 1062 complaints failed against the state of Montenegro. Up to the date of the report’s submission, the court has delivered 700 judgements, and 671 complaints were rejected. The court ruled that in ten cases there was no violation of the European Convention on Human Rights, while Montenegro had violated at least one human right on nineteen occasions, the report read. 

Although the data indicate there is no systematic violation of human rights in Montenegro, the Government stressed that special attention should be paid to the judgements were violations of law were recorded in order to eliminate weaknesses and improve the Montenegrin justice system.

The Government also adopted the report on the implementation of the IV Annual National Programme within the NATO Membership Action Plan (MAP). The report includes an overview of implemented activities in seven priority areas: political issues, rule of law, parliamentary reform, security, military and defence, as well as economic and legal issues. The Cabinet’s meeting concluded that Montenegro is committed to fully implementing the planned activities, with special emphasis on four key fields: rule of law, military and defence sector reform, security sector reform and strengthening public support.