As of 11 September 2026. Status: Adopted, not yet in force. Instrument: Zakon o izmjenama i dopunama Zakonika o krivičnom postupku (Act amending the Criminal Procedure Code), "Sl. list CG" 132/2026, act no. 2262. Adopted by Parliament on 4 September 2026 (EPA 1163 XXVIII) and published on 9 September 2026, it enters into force on the eighth day after publication, which is 17 September 2026 (Article 99).
If you are a foreign national stopped by the police in Budva, or summoned to give a statement to a prosecutor in Podgorica, the first obstacle is rarely the law. It is the language of the form in front of you, the interpreter who has not arrived yet, and the phone that has just been placed on the desk. This amendment reaches all three. We set the old wording against the new one below, article by article, because several rights that are being reported as new were already in the Code.
What the text says
Consular notification is not new. The old Article 5 already required that a person deprived of liberty be told, in their own language, why they were held, that they need not say anything, that they may choose a lawyer, and that they may ask for a named person and the diplomatic or consular representative of their state to be informed. What changes is the form. Under the new Article 5(3), the detained person must be handed a written letter of rights (pisana pouka o pravima) without delay. Beyond the earlier items, it must state the right to inspect the case file, the maximum length of police custody and of prosecutorial detention (zadržavanje), and the right to appeal the detention order. You may keep the letter with you for the whole period (Article 5(4)), and it is to be given in your language or one you understand (Article 5(6)).
| Point | Until 16 September 2026 | From 17 September 2026 | Article |
|---|---|---|---|
| Information on rights | Oral, in your language | Also in writing, in your language, kept by you | 5(3)-(6) |
| Silence | Right existed | Silence expressly may not count against you | 4(3), 261(2) |
| Interpreter | Translation of statements and documents | Check at first contact, appeal against "no interpreter needed", interpreting with your lawyer, complaint about quality | 8(2)-(10) |
| No lawyer within 12 hours | Prosecutor could question you alone | Lawyer appointed from the Bar list, questioning within the next 12 hours | 266(2) |
| Detention hearing | Lawyer could attend; 48 hours if ordered unheard | Held in the lawyer's presence; 24 hours | 176(2), 176(4) |
| Phones and computers | Computer search; user must give access | Forensic copy, right to attend, no password duty for the suspect | 75(2)-(22) |
Article 8 on language has been rewritten from the first paragraph. The authority must now establish at first contact whether you speak the language of the proceedings and need an interpreter, and a decision that you do not need one can be appealed. Oral communication is interpreted throughout, and decisions on deprivation of liberty, indictments and judgments are translated. Interpreting is also provided for conversations with your lawyer when preparing a defence or an appeal. If you think the interpreting is wrong, Article 8(10) lets you complain to the prosecutor or judge, who will hand the job to another interpreter if the complaint is justified.
Two changes affect access to a lawyer. The old Article 266(2) allowed a prosecutor to question a detained person without counsel if no lawyer appeared within 12 hours. From 17 September a lawyer is appointed from the Bar Association's list in that situation and questioning must take place within the following 12 hours. Article 100 now permits questioning without a lawyer only after a clear, voluntary and recorded waiver, which you can revoke at any time. A statement taken in breach of these rules cannot be used as evidence (Article 100(11)).
Searches of phones and computers follow a new procedure. As a rule the search runs on a forensic copy, and the person whose device was seized, with their lawyer, may attend the copying (Articles 75(4) and 75(8)). Private data unrelated to the warrant stays out of the record and the file (Article 75(18)). Communications with a lawyer and professionally privileged material are sealed and may not be read until a court rules on them (Article 75(20)).
What the text does not say
The content of the written letter will be set by the Ministry of Justice (Article 5(5)), and secondary rules have nine months to catch up (Article 514a(1)). We found no published form as of 11 September 2026, so we cannot tell you which languages will be available at a police station on 17 September. The fallback is written into the law: if the letter is not available in your language, your rights are explained orally and the written version follows "as soon as possible". No number of hours is given.
Cloud data is the second grey area. Article 75(14) allows email and cloud data reachable from the seized device to be collected wherever it is stored; if it is first reliably established that the data sits on a server outside Montenegro, treaty conditions apply. Article 75(15) adds that an unknown location does not in itself prevent access. For an ordinary corporate mailbox, the text does not tell us which of the two routes will be used. Nor does Article 8 give a deadline or a body for the appeal against a "no interpreter needed" decision.
Our reading
If you are detained, ask for three things and ask for them to be recorded: the letter of rights in your language, a lawyer, and notification of your consulate. If no letter is given, have that noted in the record. Article 100(11) excludes a statement taken without the required information.
Declining to speak until your lawyer arrives may not be held against you. The Code now says so in plain words, three times: Articles 4, 100 and 261.
For company directors the password rule deserves attention. The duty to provide passwords and technical help cannot be imposed on the suspect, but a court can impose it on another person who runs the system or uses the device, with a fine of up to 5,000 euros for refusal (Article 75(21)-(22)). Knowing in advance who holds administrator access in your Montenegrin company, and where lawyer correspondence is kept, is worth more than it was a month ago.
If you are a victim living abroad, for example after a property fraud, the address you gave matters more from 17 September. Under the new Article 59(5), a prosecutor's notice that cannot be delivered to your known address, or cannot be handed over because you did not report a change of address, is posted on the prosecution office's notice board and counts as delivered eight days later. This rule is not deferred. We explained the deadlines that follow such notices in our property fraud piece; its article numbers for the interpreter rule and the six-month deadline move to 8(7) and 59(6) on 17 September.
What did not change
The proceedings are still conducted in Montenegrin (Article 8(1)), and submissions to the court are made in Montenegrin, although a detained person may write in their own language (Article 9(1)-(2)). Only an advokat can act as defence counsel (Article 66(3)). The police must bring a detained person before the prosecutor within 24 hours (Article 264(3)); prosecutorial detention lasts at most 72 hours, with eight hours to appeal (Article 267). The victims' package (Articles 65a-65v, 256b and 256v) applies not on 17 September but six months after victim support services are set up, and the Act gives one year to set them up (Articles 514b and 516a). Detention proceedings opened before the Act takes effect finish under the old rules; trials already under way continue under the new ones (Article 513a).
How to verify
The official text is on the Official Gazette's site: sluzbenilist.me/propisi/397968. The record shows registry number 2262 and the entry-into-force date 17.09.2026. Look for Article 3 of the amending Act (new Article 5), Article 4 (new Article 8), Article 27 (new Article 75), Article 62 (Article 266) and Article 99 (entry into force). The full issue is listed in the index of issue 132/2026. The footnote at the end names four EU directives: 2012/13/EU, 2012/29/EU, 2016/343 and 2024/1712.
In Montenegro, defence counsel in a criminal case must be an advokat entered in the Bar's roll; how such a file is set up and whose name goes on the power of attorney is covered on our Montenegro lawyer page. The asset-freezing law published two days earlier is explained in our note on Law 131/2026, and we will add the Ministry's form to Legal Updates when it is published.
