Vucevic remains stateless?

The Ministry of Internal Affairs (MUP) will check if he is a basketball player Nikola Vucevic acquired an American passport and thereby violated the domestic law that does not allow dual citizenship, and the outcome of those checks could be that the representative of Montenegro is no longer a citizen.

The Montenegrin basketball player recently became an American citizen, as announced by the US Citizenship and Immigration Services.

"The joyous naturalization ceremony became even more special as Chicago Bulls player Nikola Vucevic took the oath and became a new US citizen. Welcome to the American family!", they wrote in a post on the X social network.

From the department Danilo Saranovic, responding to the question of whether Vučević will be stripped of his citizenship, said that they will initiate proceedings against all those who are found to have the citizenship of another country in addition to the Montenegrin one, under the force of law.

"MUP will ex officio initiate the procedure for the loss of Montenegrin citizenship by force for all persons who are found to have voluntarily acquired, in addition to Montenegrin citizenship, the citizenship of another country after June 3, 2006, in accordance with Article 24 paragraph 4 of the Law on Montenegrin Citizenship of the law", reads the MUP's reply.

The Ministry cited the provision of Article 24 paragraph 1 of the Law on Montenegrin Citizenship, which stipulates that "a Montenegrin citizen of legal age who also has the citizenship of another country loses Montenegrin citizenship by force of law if he has voluntarily acquired the citizenship of another country", except in the case of another citizenship acquired through international treaties and agreements.

They added that to date, Montenegro has not signed an agreement on dual citizenship with any country.

Also, the Ministry of Interior reminds that Montenegrin citizenship is lost by force of law upon acquisition of another, on which the competent authority, ex officio, makes a decision, but also that those who acquired it before June 3, 2006 have the right to keep both.

When asked whether the post and photo on social networks is sufficient evidence for Vucevic to be without a passport, Šaranović's department said that after the checks were carried out, the information that the basketball player acquired "citizenship of another country in addition to the Montenegrin one and collected facts, i.e. evidence (certificate of citizenship of another country, a decision on the acquisition of that citizenship and a birth certificate with the statement and date of acquisition of another citizenship), take further actions in accordance with the Law on Administrative Procedure and the Law on Montenegrin Citizenship".

Vučević did not answer "Vijevic" on the basis of which he acquired American citizenship, whether he knows that he can lose his Montenegrin citizenship, whether he will submit a request to be released from it, as well as what is his position on the fact that he can remain without the citizenship of the country for which he is performing.

Are other Montenegrin athletes in trouble?

One of the conditions for playing for a national team is the citizenship of that country.

Naturalization of players is not a rare occurrence in sports, so on that basis some Montenegrin athletes played for Serbia, Kosovo, Spain, Georgia, Qatar, Indonesia...

When asked whether they will be deprived of their citizenship, the MUP told "Vijesta" that in any situation where they learn of the fact that a person has voluntarily acquired the citizenship of another country, they will ex officio initiate proceedings for the loss of Montenegrin citizenship. , but also that after the conducted procedure (obtained evidence and the party's statement on those circumstances), they will make a decision on the request in question.

"When it comes to the record of initiated proceedings for the loss of Montenegrin citizenship by force of law, we point out that this ministry does not keep it depending on the profession of a person. The procedure for initiating the procedure for the loss of Montenegrin citizenship by force of law is the same for all persons, regardless of occupation," Saranović's department announced.