More than eight months after the initiation, the Ministry of Defense and the Army of Montenegro (AVCG) have not yet completed the disciplinary proceedings against the former commander of the Navy, Commodore Darko Vuković.
The proceedings have meanwhile taken on a new dimension because the military prosecutor, acting on a new initiative by the Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Montenegro, attempted to supplement the indictment against Vuković.
This was confirmed to "Vijesti" by the legal team representing Vuković in the proceedings, led by lawyer Miljan Knezevic from Podgorica. On the other hand, the Ministry of Defense (MO) claims that the procedure is in its final phase.
"We inform you that the main hearing in the military disciplinary proceedings has been completed, that the parties have stated their views on the results of the evidentiary proceedings and that the case is currently in the phase of drafting a decision by the Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Montenegro," the department headed by the Minister told "Vijesti". Dragan Krapović (Democrats).
Vuković's legal team claims that the Ministry of Defense and the Armed Forces of Montenegro are deliberately delaying the proceedings and that, since the defense "reasonably denied" their accusations during the hearing, they are trying to add other, new charges to Vuković's charges. They assessed that they are doing this so that Vuković does not return to the head of the Navy until March next year, when he meets the conditions for retirement.
Vuković, by a decision of the Ministry of Defense, made at the proposal of the Chief of the General Staff (CGS), Brigadier General Miodrag Vuksanović, was removed from his position as Commander of the Navy on December 23 last year. On the same day, disciplinary proceedings were initiated against him on suspicion that, contrary to the order of his superior, the Chief of the General Staff, he had addressed the President of Montenegro and the Chairman of the Defense and Security Council directly, in a letter. Jakov Milatović.
In the letter, the Navy commander allegedly claimed that Minister Krapović was mobbing him, that is, that Vuković's rank was not respected when entering the Ministry of Defense building and when arranging seating arrangements at meetings.
Vuković holds the naval rank of commodore, which is equal to the rank of brigadier general in the army held by NGŠ Miodrag Vuksanović, to whom the then head of the Navy, respecting the principle of subordination and the so-called line of command and control in the army, sent the disputed letter.
The procedure should be urgent.
Although, according to the relevant regulations (Article 2 of the Rules on Disciplinary Procedure in the Armed Forces of Montenegro), military disciplinary proceedings are urgent, they have not been completed in the Vuković case to date.
First, the military prosecutor, Captain Jovica Mijušković, waited 40 days from the date of initiation of disciplinary proceedings to submit the decision on this to the Military Disciplinary Commission (VDK) on 2 February. Then, on 17 February, the VDK, chaired by Colonel Hajrudin Đerekarac schedules the main hearing, and then immediately postpones it until further notice due to “urgent obligations of the president and all members of the panel”. Two urgent requests followed from Vuković’s defense attorney, who requested that the case files be delivered to him and the main hearing be held, and he received the case files on May 4 (60 days from the delivery of the first urgent request). The main hearing before the VDK panel was held on May 26 - five months after the alleged disciplinary proceedings. However, the hearing was also interrupted and postponed due to the military disciplinary prosecutor’s lack of preparation.
"After the military prosecutor read his Decision on Initiating Disciplinary Proceedings dated 23 December 2025, he took out some papers and informed those present of the following: that he had received a letter from the NGŠ dated 30 April, charging me with two more acts with elements of 'disciplinary responsibility'. The prosecutor pointed out that he had received the aforementioned letter from the NGŠ on 4 or 5 May - he does not remember exactly, and that he had not written a new or amended Decision on Initiating Disciplinary Proceedings based on new facts, nor had he prepared evidence/case files, because the prosecutor was on annual leave from 5 to 24 May," Vuković told "Vijesti".
The head of state's office denies the allegations.
Vuković pointed out that by then it had become indisputable that he had not sent any letter to the president of the state, which was confirmed by an official letter that, at the request of the VDK, was delivered to that body by the head of President Milatović's cabinet. Ivana Pejović.
"Commodore Vuković did not officially address the President of Montenegro, nor is there a document of that type in the official records of this state body. Therefore, apart from the usual oral communication that Commodore Vuković had with President Milatović during the President's official visit to the Navy of Montenegro, there is no described official communication that you mention in the letter," Pejović stated in a letter to the VDK, which "Vijesti" has access to.
The main hearing before the Military Prosecutor's Office continued and ended on June 26, and according to Vuković and his lawyer, the Commodore's innocence was proven with arguments for the alleged disciplinary offense of "delivering a letter to the President of Montenegro", and the decision to supplement the decision of the military prosecutor to initiate disciplinary proceedings "in which he only states one of the two charges orally announced at the previous hearing" was challenged as procedurally impermissible.
However, when the VDK decision was finally to be made, three days later - on June 29, the military prosecutor, Captain Jovica Mijušković “based on the letter from the NGŠ dated April 30”, initiates a new decision to initiate disciplinary proceedings against Vuković. In addition to the charges brought against him by Brigadier General Vuksanović in the first proposal, Vuković's list of official misconduct charges has been expanded by a new decision by Prosecutor Mijušković.
Allegedly refused to carry out the order
In the new decision, Vuković is charged with "acting contrary to the order of the Chief of General Staff", because on December 23 last year he allegedly ignored Vuksanović's order of December 19 to submit his written statement "on the circumstances of delivering the letter to the President of Montenegro" within three days.
In a new letter to the prosecutor (who prosecuted him), Vuksanović also accused Vuković of allegedly failing to appear at the official interview on December 23rd last year at 9 am at the NGŠ, to which he had been invited.
Vuković, however, claims that he arrived at the MoD building in Podgorica at the scheduled time, where the Navy Command is located, but that the military police who are guarding the building did not allow him to enter it at the main entrance, of which there is a written record. He emphasizes that he did carry out the order to come for an official interview, but that the military police prevented him from reaching the Navy Command's office. He claims that he never received the Navy Command's order to submit a written statement on whether or not he, as the Commander of the Navy, wrote to the President of the State, and he does not know what it was about.
"Months after initiating the first procedure, the NGŠ remembered my 'other violations' from the same period and proposed initiating new disciplinary proceedings because the alleged letter to the president of the state for which I was accused was no longer relevant, as well as due to the fact that in such a situation Vuksanović would have to make the only possible decision - an acquittal. Such actions by the NGŠ cannot be interpreted otherwise than as an act of frustration over the certainly lost first disciplinary procedure, personal retaliation and conscious institutional delay of the entire procedure with the aim of my continued personal and professional discredit through removal from duty, until I meet the conditions for retirement on March 23, 2027. This claim is supported by the fact that the above-mentioned NGŠ Decision to initiate second disciplinary proceedings against me, dated June 29, 2026, was only delivered on August 19 - almost two months after it was adopted," says Vuković.
He emphasizes that the final decision of the NGŠ on his possible disciplinary liability was not made more than eight months after the alleged disciplinary offense and more than 70 days after the end of the hearing before the VDK council, even though the Rules of Procedure on Disciplinary Procedure in the VCG clearly stipulate that "disciplinary proceedings are urgent".
Krapović does not care about the essence of the Administrative Court's decision
Meanwhile, on May 11, Vuković managed to overturn the decision of the State Appeals Commission of January 29 before the Administrative Court, by which the commission confirmed as valid Krapović's first-instance decision of December 23, 2025, on the removal of Vuković from the position of Commander of the Navy.
The Administrative Court annulled the decision of the State Appeals Commission as unlawful, and it subsequently accepted Vuković's objection, but did not decide on the merits and overturn Krapović's decision, but returned it for a new decision to the first-instance body - the Ministry of Defense, i.e. Minister Krapović. In the meantime, the Minister of Defense, in a repeated procedure, again decided the same as in December last year - to remove Vuković from office.
"After the State Appeals Commission, acting on the judgment of the Administrative Court, returned the case to the Ministry of Defense for a new procedure, the Ministry conducted the procedure and issued a new decision, with appropriate justification. Namely, in the new procedure, pursuant to the Decision of the State Appeals Commission... of June 25, 2026, and in execution of the aforementioned judgment of the Administrative Court, the Ministry of Defense issued Decision No. UP I No. 06021-102/25-4530/2 on July 20, 2026, by which Commodore Darko Vuković was again removed from the position of Commander of the Navy of the Armed Forces of Montenegro, starting from December 24, 2025, because disciplinary proceedings were initiated against him for a disciplinary offense and the assessment that his presence would be detrimental to the interests of the service, and that procedure has not yet been finalized," Krapović's department told "Vijesti".
The Administrative Court ruling on the basis of which all this happened, however, clearly states that this court confirmed all of Vuković's claims that the Minister of Defense could not remove the commodore from the position of Commander of the Navy because this is the exclusive jurisdiction of the Defense and Security Council of Montenegro, and that this violated Vuković's rights.
The Minister of Defense, according to the law, has the right to remove non-commissioned officers from duty, but not officers, especially not Vuković, who, from the position of Commander of the Navy, is practically the second man in the Armed Forces of Montenegro.
However, the defense department believes that the Administrative Court was wrong in this case.
"When making the new decision (on the removal of Vuković from office - ed.), the Ministry of Defense, among other things, pointed to previous decisions of the Administrative Court in identical or similar cases, on the same factual and legal basis, which were completely contrary to the position taken in the judgment in question, i.e. to the discontinuity in relation to earlier case law, namely the judgment of the Administrative Court U. No. 4018/20 of 10. 2. 2021 and the judgment of the Supreme Court of Montenegro Uvp. No. 226/21 of 8. 4. 2021."
They did not comment on Vuković's allegations that the disciplinary proceedings against him are being deliberately delayed and that the Ministry of Defense and the Navy are doing everything in their power to prevent Vuković from returning to the Navy before he meets the conditions for retirement in March of next year.
"The Ministry of Defense strives to ensure that cases in administrative proceedings are resolved within a reasonable time, in accordance with the law, with full respect for the procedural rights of the parties, in accordance with the complexity of the case," the Ministry of Defense said.
Letter on the Defense Council agenda, although Milatović's cabinet claims it is not there
Although Ivana Pejović, the head of the cabinet of President Jakov Milatović, officially states that Commodore Vuković "did not officially address the President of Montenegro, nor is there a document of that kind in the official records of this state body," this item was included on the agenda of the session of the Defense and Security Council, scheduled for December 24, 2025.
The fourth item on the proposed agenda, signed by the President of the State, Jakov Milatović, is the “Letter from the Commander of the Navy of the Army of Montenegro, Commodore Darko Vuković, addressed to the President of Montenegro”.
The agenda, which "Vijesti" had access to, also states that Milatović invited Minister Dragan Krapović, Chief of the General Staff Miodrag Vuksanović, Navy Commander Darko Vuković to the session...
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