Rodić and Gazivoda: The Higher Court has ruled in a final judgment that Irena Radović was unlawfully dismissed from her position as Vice Governor

The Higher Court in Podgorica has upheld the 2019 verdict of the Basic Court in Podgorica, which annulled the Parliament's decision to dismiss Irena Radović from the position of Vice Governor of the Central Bank as unlawful, lawyers Goran Rodić and Siniša Gazivoda announced.

They explain that this means that the decision to dismiss Radović has been legally annulled after more than seven years of proceedings before the courts.

Irena Radović is the current Governor of the Central Bank of Montenegro (CBCG).

Rodić and Gazivoda recall that the Supreme Court, at the beginning of the proceedings in 2018, decided that the decision on dismissal could be reviewed before the court and established the jurisdiction of regular courts.

"After the Basic Court in Podgorica ruled in early 2019 that Radović's dismissal was unfounded and unlawful, during the decision on the appeal, the Supreme Court of Montenegro adopted a principled legal position unrecorded in comparative case law. In accordance with this principled legal position, although the basic provisions of the Constitution of Montenegro stipulate that the relationship between the three branches of government is based on mutual balance and control, the Supreme Court took the position that the courts will not exercise such control over the Parliament of Montenegro, except when expressly prescribed by law," the statement reads.

"Based on such a principled legal position, which all circumstances point to the conclusion that it was adopted precisely so that this case would not be finalized in favor of Irena Radović, the Higher Court in Podgorica returned the case to the Basic Court for re-determination. The acting judge of the Basic Court in Podgorica in the re-trial adhered only to the Constitution and the law, and in 2019 she again ruled that Radović's dismissal was unfounded and unlawful. Deciding on the appeal of the Protector of Property and Legal Interests of Montenegro against that judgment, the Higher Court in Podgorica, applying the principled legal position of the Supreme Court, overturned the judgment of the Basic Court and dismissed the lawsuit, refusing to review the legality of the decision of the Parliament of Montenegro. After the Supreme Court confirmed this approach, we turned to the Constitutional Court of Montenegro, which, in a decision from December 2023, determined that Irena Radović's fundamental human right - the right to access to court - was violated by this action of the Montenegrin courts," they add.

In the further course of the proceedings, the Supreme Court overturned the earlier decision of the Higher Court in Podgorica, and now the Higher Court "finally rejected the Ombudsman's appeal", making the verdict on the annulment of the dismissal final, the lawyers said.

"In the judgment confirming that the dismissal was unlawful, the Higher Court explicitly confirmed as correct the conclusions of the Basic Court from 2019, that the procedure was violated, that Radović was not given the opportunity to state the reasons for the dismissal, that the then Central Bank of Montenegro Council applied the wrong legal provisions and that the Parliament of Montenegro should not have accepted this, but most importantly, that the reasons for the dismissal were only 'mechanically' stated, vague, given in a blanket manner, unspecified and without a single legally relevant evidence," the statement reads.

Rodić and Gazivoda said that, due to "illegal actions of the then Central Bank of Montenegro Council and the Parliament of Montenegro", the right to compensation for damages will be exercised in a special procedure.