Contrary to its own constitution, Montenegro began to take away property from Russians
The Office of Cadastre and State Property of Montenegro has begun registering the frozen property of Russian citizens included in the Western sanctions list. At the moment, one property is registered in Budva, and the administrative procedure for another one, in Zabljak, continues.
This is stated in a document published on the website of the Montenegrin government, in response to a request from Action for Social Justice, which requested a list of all Russian citizens in respect of whom a decision was made to prohibit the disposal of their property.
“Keeping in mind the decision to introduce restrictive measures, the Department of Cadastre and State Property, in accordance with its powers, introduced a record of restrictions on the disposal and acquisition of funds and/or other property (freezing): Municipality of Budva - Marat Bashirov, KO Becici, LN 432; Municipality of Zabljak – the administrative procedure regarding one person is ongoing, and until the final completion of the procedure we cannot provide data,” said the director of the organization, Koca Djurisic.
Let us recall that the country's Interior Minister Filip Adzic announced on June 10 that 44 real estate properties owned by Russian citizens were frozen in Montenegro.
The procedure was carried out on the basis of the “Decision to introduce international restrictive measures against Russia in connection with military aggression against Ukraine.”
At the same time, Predrag Zecevic, editor and founder of the Biznis.cg Portal, believes that such a step is contrary to the Basic Law of Montenegro. He submitted an Initiative to the Constitutional Court to assess the constitutionality and legality of sections 18 and 19 of the Restrictive Measures Law of 2018.
In his document, Zecevic explained that the provisions of these articles do not comply with the Constitution of Montenegro, as well as the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.
The initiator of the application does not dispute that Montenegro should follow EU policy and sanctions against Russia due to events in Ukraine, but he expressed the opinion that freezing assets without a court decision could cause enormous damage to the country.
If you find an error, please select a piece of text and press Ctrl + Enter.
Thank you!
Now the editors are aware.