MUP not to wait for the court's decision to issue a passport

The Ministry of Internal Affairs (MUP) should act in the same way on the case of the granting of citizenship to two brothers from Podgorica, and not, as in the case of the first BB makes rejecting decisions and waits for the ruling of the Administrative Court, and then enters it in the register of citizens by force of law.

This, among other things, was announced yesterday by the Center for Civil Liberties (CEGAS) about the case in which, after years of trial, BB received Montenegrin citizenship, while his brother, for the same matter, is awaiting the third meritorious verdict of the Administrative Court. They also announced that they sent several letters about that case from the department he heads Filip Adzic they got no answers.

CEGAS announced yesterday that for citizens, "the first priority is to establish legal certainty by clearly applying the law", and that civil servants and decision-makers, "taking into account the legal accuracy, and then also the economy of the procedures... must be aware of the costs of the proceedings themselves before the second-instance authorities".

"Vijesti" recently announced that XNUMX-year-old BB from Podgorica received Montenegrin citizenship only after the Ministry of Interior, following three rulings by the Administrative Court to the detriment of that department, was forced to enter him in the citizen book. His brother has exactly the same status, but the Ministry of Internal Affairs will not grant him citizenship based on the BB's decision, but he will also wait for the court's epilogue.

CEGAS previously said that the Ministry of Interior and the Administrative Court interpreted the same case differently and reminded that the Law on Administrative Procedure obliges that "the public legal body takes into account the earlier decisions it made on essentially the same administrative matters".

The Administrative Court annulled the decision of the Department of Internal Affairs three times, considering that the rejection of BB's request to be entered in the book of citizens of Montenegro was unfounded. According to the last verdict from January, the MUP is also obliged to compensate the prosecutor for the costs of the proceedings in the amount of 400 euros.

"Two brothers have been waiting for years to obtain Montenegrin citizenship based on Article 10 of the Law on Montenegrin Citizenship, according to which a Montenegrin expatriate and a member of his family up to the third degree of kinship in the direct line can acquire Montenegrin citizenship by admission if he resides legally and continuously in Montenegro for at least two years and at the same time, he fulfills all conditions from Article 8, Paragraph 1, Items 1, 4, 5, 7 and 8 of the Law on Montenegrin Citizenship. The Ministry of Internal Affairs twice issued a negative decision for one of the brothers, considering that there is no relevant evidence that indicates that his grandfather is a Montenegrin emigrant, while the Administrative Court, with its judgments, confirms the opposite", CEGAS reminded yesterday, adding that is the third time, by force of the legal procedure, when the Administrative Court passed the third verdict, the MUP issued a decision by which BB acquired the right to Montenegrin citizenship by admission.

"The other brother is expected to face the same, rather exhausting and painstaking, procedure before the court, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs is not announcing it," CEGAS said.

That NGO had previously requested from the MUP the number of decisions on granting Montenegrin citizenship by admission, based on court decisions, for the period from 2016 to April 19, 2022. As they said, they received an answer that it was only about one such granted citizenship. - about the case of BB

"Regardless of the unique case, the inconsistency in the interpretation of the legal norm of the Ministry of Interior and the Administrative Court raises legal uncertainty... It is unclear how the Ministry of Interior maintains its position on the interpretation of that norm in a specific case, until the third judgment of the Administrative Court, when the court goes into the merits , so the Ministry of Internal Affairs finally grants a decision approving Montenegrin citizenship", they state from that NGO and add that, as BB's own brother has exactly the same status, "one should not expect a different legal decision, nor wait for the epilogue of three court proceedings before a second-instance authority". .