The Administrative Court dismissed as unfounded the lawsuit filed by the AY company from Kotor against the Municipality of Kotor for not issuing building permits to that company for the construction of residential and commercial buildings in Kostanjica, which would certainly remove Kotor from the list of World Natural and Cultural Heritage under the patronage of UNESCO.
This definitely put an end to this project, regarding which political, as well as urban-architectural and spatial preservation professions have been breaking for years in Kotor.
"The court finds that during the procedure there was no significant violation of the rules of administrative procedure, nor was there a violation of the procedure that could have an impact on the resolution of the matter, and that the public law authorities, in accordance with the rules of administrative procedure, gave complete and clear reasons when they rejected the plaintiff's request ( AY), which cannot be called into question according to the allegations of the lawsuit. Appreciating the established factual situation, the court finds that the administrative authorities made a correct decision when they rejected the plaintiff's request for the issuance of a building permit," among other things, it is written in the verdict of the panel of judges of the Administrative Court, presided over by the judge Muzafer Hadžajlić.
"Vijesti" had insight into the judgment passed on January 27, which was delivered to the Municipality of Kotor yesterday. Complaint to the Administrative Court on the decision of the Chief Administrator of the Municipality of Kotor Marine Bjelje by which their appeal against the decision of the Secretariat for Urban Planning, which he manages, was already rejected once Jelena Franović, not to issue building permits to them was submitted by the lawyer of the company AY Nikola Martinovic. He claimed that this violated the rights of his clients who, referring to the detailed urban plan (DUP) of Kostanjica from 2009 with amendments from 2013 and 2016, were invalidated. Eight applications were submitted to the municipality of Kotor for the issuance of building permits on plots owned by the company AY in Kostanjica. They were asked to enable the construction of about 30 new residential-tourist and auxiliary buildings with a total area of almost 9.600 square meters. The then local government of Kotor, led by the Democrats, did not respond to AY's request, and the mayor of Kotor did not Vladimir Jokic then publicly announced that he did not think of signing construction permits that would allow further devastation of the area of Kostanjica and would surely remove Kotor from the UNESCO list.
Due to the possibility of Kotor losing the status of a UNESCO protected area, the DPS-led Prime Minister's Government Duško Marković had introduced a moratorium on further construction until the adoption of the new Spatial-Urban Plan (PUP) of Kotor. The then minister of sustainable development and tourism Pavle Radulović (DPS) in several public appearances recommended to Jokić that "those permits should be refused", and this position was signed in front of RTCG cameras by the then director of the Administration for the Protection of Cultural Property Anastasia Miranović (DPS), when the mayor of Kotor offered it to her.
Martinović did not give up the lawsuit to the Administrative Court, in which he requested the annulment of the decision of the chief administrator of the Municipality of Kotor and the issuance of disputed construction permits. Martinović is to the Special State Prosecutor's Office (SDT), led by the former SDP Milivoj Katnić filed criminal charges against Jokić for not responding to the company's requests to obtain building permits. After the investigation, the SDT dismissed the criminal complaint and handed the case over to the Basic State Prosecutor's Office in Kotor with a recommendation to investigate whether the actions of Jokić and his employees may have involved malpractice, but even that investigation did not result in the incrimination of the Municipality's management.
To this day, the prosecution and the police have not acted on Jokić's request to arrest him or the former minister of tourism and sustainable development for this case. Branimir Gvozdenović (DPS), which was a direct participant in the illegal adoption of planning documents for Kostanjica in 2009 and 2013, referred to by the AY company, seeking to build a huge complex on untouched green areas.
Last year, Jokić was Katnić and the head of the Special Police Department (SPO). Dragan Radonjić requested that the SPO take "measures and actions against Branimir Gvozdenović and other NN persons, regarding the illegal approval of the proposal of the DUP Kostanjic in 2009 and its illegal extension in 2013, as well as to investigate the origin of the money and capital of the AY company in order to it was determined whether behind the founder of this company registered in Jersey Channel Islands there is legal money or whether it was acquired through some criminal act".
Jokić asked the competent state authorities to investigate all the circumstances related to the offshore company AY and its subsidiaries operating in Montenegro, as well as its possible connections with certain former high-ranking state officials from the time of the joint DPS-SDP rule over Montenegro and Kotor. The prosecution has not done this to date, and the Administrative Court put an end to this project with a verdict and saved Kostanjica from devastation.
Jokić respected the law and international obligations
In the judgment of the Administrative Court, it is written that Martinović's claim that A-Y acquired any right regarding the construction in Kostanjica by submitting a request for building permits, nor was the Municipality obliged to issue the requested permits to the company, is wrong.
The court especially emphasizes that it is about "the area within the boundaries of the natural and cultural-historical area of Kotor inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1979", which is why the state has an additional obligation to respect the relevant international conventions and regulations related to that heritage, which have primacy over domestic legislation and are directly applied when they regulate relations differently from domestic legislation".
"Therefore, the court considers that the law was not violated in this case to the detriment of the plaintiffs, and therefore the lawsuit should be rejected as unfounded," the verdict reads.
Bonus video:
