The procedure that the former president of Montenegro Milo Djukanovic is pending before the Administrative Court against the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption (ASK), in which he challenges the decision that he did not report an increase in assets based on a revolving card debt during 2019, has not yet come up for decision, because it is not an urgent or priority case.
This was told to "Vijesti" yesterday by the Administrative Court. They added that the lawsuit in that case was received on March 3, 2025, that the defendant's response with complete files was submitted to the court on April 7, that the cases are being processed in the order they are due, and that among them are those that were received during 2023 and 2024.
"The matter you are interested in does not fall into the category of urgent or priority matters," they explained.
Due to the same decision by the Agency, Đukanović sued ASK for alleged violation of honor, reputation and dignity and sought compensation for non-pecuniary damage in the amount of 5.000 euros.
The Basic Court rejected the claim two days ago as premature, explaining that the legality of the ASK decision, on which Đukanović based his claims of violation of his personal rights, is being examined in an ongoing administrative dispute. With that ruling, Đukanović is also obliged to pay the Agency 500 euros in procedural costs.
The ASK decision was made on February 10, 2025, and it determined that Đukanović, as a public official, did not declare an increase in assets in the amount of 16.741,24 euros during 2019. The agency treated this amount as income, because the debt from the use of the Atlas Bank Visa revolving card was settled by his son. Blazo Djukanovic.
In his lawsuit, Đukanović claimed that ASK acted illegally, that it had access to evidence that the debt did not exist, but, as he stated, ignored it. He also believed that the public publication of the decision and its reasoning violated the protection of personal data and banking secrecy, and that it enabled his discrediting in public.
He also disputed the statement of a member of the ASK Council. Mladen Tomović, given to "Vijesti", in which he commented on the decision and announced the forwarding of the case to the Special State Prosecutor's Office, assessing that he had thereby exceeded his authority. In his response to the lawsuit, ASK stated that he had acted within the scope of his legal authority, that it was a valid administrative act whose legality is examined exclusively in an administrative dispute, and that the decision did not publish data that should not be available to the public.
In the reasoning of the judgment, the Basic Court emphasized that the civil court cannot assess the legality of an administrative act until it is annulled or declared unlawful by a final decision of the competent court, and that an administrative act produces legal effects while it is in force.
The court also pointed out that the verdict did not decide the substance of the dispute, and that Đukanović, if the Administrative Court annuls the ASK decision, has the right to re-file the lawsuit for damages.
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