The Mayor of Kotor, Vladimir Jokić (Democrats), yesterday sent a total of eight decisions to the company "AY Montenegro" about the rejection of their requests for building permits for the construction of new residential and commercial buildings in the area of Kostanjica.
Referring to the controversial DUP "Kostanjica" from 2009, with amendments from 2013, which has since been repealed, "AY Montenegro" submitted eight requests to the Municipality of Kotor in September and November 2016 for the issuance of building permits on plots owned by that company. in Kostanjica, and which she asked to enable the construction of as many as thirty new residential-tourist and auxiliary buildings, with a total area of almost 9.600 square meters.
The local government led by the Democrats at the time did not respond to their request, and Jokić then publicly announced that he did not think of signing those building permits that would allow further devastation of the Kostanjica area and certainly removed Kotor from the UNESCO list. Due to the possibility of Kotor losing the status of a UNESCO protected area, the DPS-led Government had already introduced a moratorium on construction until the adoption of the new Spatial-Urban Plan (SPA) 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 such a position was even publicly signed by the director of the Administration for the Protection of Cultural Property Anastazija Miranović (DPS) in front of RTCG cameras. , when the mayor of Kotor offered it to her. In the meantime, the legal representative of "AY Montenegro", lawyer Nikola Martinović, filed a criminal complaint with the Special State Prosecutor's Office against Jokić for not responding to the company's requests to obtain building permits, so the team of the chief special prosecutor, Milivoj Katnić, began to investigate the mayor of Kotor and the actions of the Municipality in these subjects. SDT's exploration was stalled while Kotor was managed by DPS mayor Željko Aprcović for the past little more than a year, who resigned from that position after the vote of a defected SDP councilor formed a new majority led by DPS, which replaced Jokic.
After the elections on August 30, which the DPS in Kotor lost, Jokić returned to the post of mayor, and the SDT continued the investigation regarding the non-issuance of building permits to "AY Montenegro". This motivated Jokić to publicly address the SDT last Sunday, demanding that the body managed by Katnić declare as soon as possible whether his actions related to the non-issuance of construction permits for the mammoth construction in Kostanjica, which would have removed Kotor from the UNESCO list, have any criminal acts or not. Jokić asked the SDT that, if they believe that he or one of his associates has committed a criminal offense that is being prosecuted ex officio, to take further measures and arrest him, or that the SDT finally bring the former Minister of Spatial Planning and a high-ranking DPS official to justice Branimir Gvozdenović, who is a direct participant in the controversial events with the illegal adoption of planning documents for Kostanjica from 2009 and 2013, referred to by "AY Montenegro". Katnić has not responded to this for now, and yesterday Jokić "raised the bar even higher" by sending "AY Montenegro" decisions on the rejection of their requests for building permits.
In those solutions, the Kotor mayor's administration repeated the genesis of the problem, again pointing out the illegality of the DUP of Kostanjica from 2009 and its amendments from 2013, which were approved by the then minister Gvozdenović, even though the DUP was not aligned with the then valid Spatial Plan of the Municipality Kotor, nor with the international obligations that Montenegro has towards UNESCO.
In an extensive explanation of the reasons for rejecting the request of "AY Montenegro", Jokić recalls a whole series of domestic and international documents that would be violated by issuing permits for such a large construction in Kostanjica and recalls the position of the Joint Reactive Monitoring Mission of the UNESCO-ICOMOS World Heritage Center after their stay in Kotor in November 2018 that "permanent suspension of further construction under the DUP, including those that are now subject to administrative proceedings, is requested".
Rejecting the demands of that company, the Municipality emphasized that in the meantime the DUP Kostanjica was put out of force by the adoption in September 2020 of the new Spatial-Urban Plan of Kotor, which was approved by UNESCO. The PUP on the plots owned by "AY Montenegro" does not envisage any construction, but the retention of natural greenery.
The interest of the state comes before the interest of unknown offshore companies
In addition to refusing requests for building permits, which is why he is being investigated by the SDT, Jokić also sent a letter to the President of the Assembly Aleksa Bečič, Prime Minister Zdravko Krivokapić, Deputy Prime Minister Dritan Abazović, Minister of Ecology, Spatial Planning and Urbanism Ratko Mitrović and the Minister of Education, Culture , science and sports Vesni Bratić.
Reminding them of the genesis of the problem and the role of Gvozdenović in the activities that almost removed Kotor from the list of world cultural and natural heritage, Jokić informed the leaders of the Government and the Assembly that he asked Katnić and the head of the Special Police Department (SPO) Dragan Radonjić that the SPO undertake " measures and actions against Branimir Gvozdenović and other NN persons, regarding the illegal granting of consent to the proposal of DUP Kostanjica in 2009, as well as its illegal use in 2013, as well as to investigate the origin of the money and capital of the company 'AY Montenegro' , in order to determine without a doubt whether behind the founder of this company, the company 'AY Kostanjica' registered in the Jersey Channel Islands, there are legal funds or whether these funds were acquired through some criminal act, about which I communicated most of the information, knowledge, indications and facts by giving a statement in the capacity of a citizen in February 2020 before this authority".
"Deeply convinced that you, as the holders of the most important state functions, are determined to preserve first of all the unique universal value of the Kotor protected area, and then to keep the interests of the state of Montenegro above the interests of unknown offshore companies and their daughter companies, I considered it my duty to meet you in brief with the events in this case. As it is an extremely complex case, which requires a wider elaboration, and the result of which may have irreparable consequences for the international reputation of Montenegro and the area of Kotor, I ask you to take measures within your jurisdiction, and that as soon as possible, in accordance with your obligations, find time for a meeting and a joint meeting in order to define further policies towards this sensitive area and processes", Jokić's letter to the leaders of the Government and the Assembly states.
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