Minister of Justice Bojan Božović told "Vijesti" that the Ministry suspended absolutely all activities related to the extradition of South Korean Do Kwon after they were informed that the Constitutional Court passed a temporary measure based on the constitutional appeal of his legal team.
Božović emphasized that the Ministry of Justice will absolutely not start any activities on this matter until the final decision of the Constitutional Court.
The Constitutional Court informed the public on Friday that they had passed a temporary measure suspending the announced extradition of Do Kwon, who is wanted by the United States and South Korea from Montenegro for a series of crypto-currency scams worth at least $40 billion.
"The execution of the judgment of the Supreme Court from September 19, 2024 and the decision-making process on the extradition permit are suspended until the final decision of the Constitutional Court is made," the announcement of October 18 states.
Last month, the Supreme Court determined that the conditions for Do Kwon's extradition to the USA or South Korea had been met, and that the final decision, which of the two countries he would be extradited to, would be made by Minister of Justice Bojan Božović.
The Minister of Justice announced last week that by the end of that working week he could make a decision on where Do Kwon will be extradited.
"As we informed the public, we were only informed on Friday morning by the Constitutional Court that a constitutional appeal was filed on September 26. This information came, according to the Constitutional Court itself, on the basis of what they learned in the media that the Ministry of Justice will make a decision on this matter by the end of the week, that is, by Friday. , is in the Constitutional Court from September 25 or 26. We would expect, as the order and rules dictate, to act on it within 24 or possibly 48 hours, because temporary measures are a matter of urgency in addition, we expected that, as is the practice and as is usual, that we would be informed by the Constitutional Court that such a possibility exists at all," said Božović.
He emphasized that they knew that a complaint had been filed with the US - the Ministry of Justice would certainly have stopped the procedure and would not have started any activities regarding the extradition of Do Kwon.
"After we were informed of this fact and after the temporary measure was passed on Friday, the Ministry of Justice suspended all further activities, we will of course wait for the decision of the Constitutional Court and in relation to it act as the rules dictate. When the temporary measure is based on a similar basis brought by the Supreme Court on the basis of an extraordinary legal remedy filed by the Supreme State Prosecutor's Office, the Supreme Court immediately informed us about it. It is clear that the Constitutional Court should have applied a similar practice, which is, after all, their obligation," he said.
Božović emphasized that this case showed an obvious failure in communication between the Constitutional Court and the Ministry of Justice.
"Obviously there was a failure in communication, let's hope that this and similar actions will not be repeated, and of course the Ministry of Justice is always there to wait for the decisions of all competent judicial bodies," concluded Božović.
South Korean Do Kwon was arrested on March 23, 2023 at the Podgorica airport with his business partner Chang Jun when they tried to fly to Dubai with forged passports.
During the 19-month-long extradition procedure, the courts in Montenegro have so far ruled eight times conflictingly on the requests of the two countries to extradite Do Kwon.
The high court first decided to extradite him to the US. After that decision was overturned, the same court decided to extradite him to South Korea, stating that its extradition request came before the American one.
On August 1, that verdict was confirmed by the Court of Appeal, stating that it is final.
This was followed by the reaction of the Supreme State Prosecutor's Office, which sent a request for the protection of legality to the Supreme Court, which ruled on September 19 that both countries meet the conditions, and that the final decision is made by the Minister of Justice.
Lawyer Goran Rodić previously described the duration of the proceedings and the contradictory decisions of the courts as a "judicial disgrace" for Vijesti.
A team of lawyers is fighting to fly Do Kwon to his home country.
The trial of Do Kwon and the group in America began on April 5 when his company Terraform labs was found responsible for a civil fraud of about 40 billion dollars.
Following the New York court's decision, Terraform Labs agreed to pay about $4,5 billion in a civil settlement with the SEC.
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