Part One
GENERAL PROVISIONS

Chapter I
BASIC RULES

Rights of Detained Persons

Article 5
(1) Persons deprived of liberty by a competent public authority shall be immediately informed in their language or in a language they understand about the grounds for their apprehension and, at the same time, informed that they are not obliged to make a statement, that they have a right to a defence attorney of their own choice and to request that a person of their choosing be informed on their deprivation of liberty as well as a diplomatic consular representative of a state whose nationals they are or a representative of appropriate international organization if they are stateless persons or refugees.

Part One
GENERAL PROVISIONS

Chapter I
BASIC RULES

Right to Use One’s Own Language in Criminal Proceedings

Article 8
(1) The criminal proceedings shall be conducted in the Montenegrin language.

(2) Parties, witnesses and other persons participating in the proceedings shall have the right to use their own language or the language they understand in the proceedings. If proceedings are not conducted in a language those persons understand, interpretation of statements and translation of documents and other written evidence shall be provided.

(3) Persons referred to in paragraph 2 of this Article shall be instructed of their right to interpretation, and they may waive that right if they understand the language in which the proceedings are being conducted. A note shall be made in the record that the participants of the proceedings have been so instructed, and their statement thereto shall also be recorded.

(4) Interpretation shall be entrusted to an interpreter.

Part One
GENERAL PROVISIONS

Chapter I
BASIC RULES

Language Used for Presenting Submissions to Courts and for

Remitting Submissions by Courts
Article 9

(3) Court shall issue summonses, decisions and other writs in the Montenegrin language.

(4) If the language of a minority is also in the official use in the court, the court shall deliver writs in that language to persons belonging to the respective national minority if they have used that language in the course of the proceedings. Those persons may request that writs be delivered to them in the Montenegrin language.

(5) An accused person in detention, a person serving a sentence or a person against whom a security measure in a medical institution is being enforced, shall also receive a translation of the writs referred to in paras. 1 and 3 of this Article in the language used by this person during the proceedings.

Part One
GENERAL PROVISIONS

Chapter VII
EVIDENTIARY ACTIONS

4. HEARING OF THE ACCUSED PERSON

Interrogation of the Accused Person through Interpreters

Article 106
(1) The hearing of the accused person shall be carried out through an interpreter in cases envisaged by this Code.

(2) If the accused person is deaf, the questions shall be asked in writing, and if s/he is mute, s/he shall be asked to answer in writing. If the hearing may be performed in such a manner, a person with whom the accused person is able to communicate shall be summoned as an interpreter.

(3) If the interpreter has not previously taken an oath, s/he shall take the oath stating that s/he would faithfully communicate questions put to the accused person as well as statements given by the accused person.

(4) Provisions of the present Code referring to expert witnesses shall be applied accordingly to interpreters.