The arbitration proceedings initiated by Duško Knežević, Atlas Capital Holding Limited and Meljine Complex Limited against the Government of Montenegro should officially begin in a month, the Atlas Group's legal team announced.
Atlas Group is seeking EUR 500 million in damages.
Since the two sides could not agree on the election of the President of the Arbitral Tribunal, the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague appointed Professor Donald McRae as its discretionary president, which was the last step before the start of the proceedings before the arbitral tribunal.
"The two parties previously each chose their own arbitrator. The government chose its own arbitrator in the investment arbitration procedure, lawyer and arbitration law expert Bernardo Sepulvedo Amor from Mexico, while the choice of Knežević and his companies is Prof. Dr. Guido Santiago Tavil from Argentina," they said. from the Atlas Group legal team.
The request for arbitration was sent on December 1, 2020, which initiated the arbitration proceedings.
"Based on the bilateral agreement that the joint state of Serbia and Montenegro signed with Cyprus in 2005, and since Atlas Capital Holding Limited and Meljine Complex Limited are Cypriot companies, a lawsuit was filed against Montenegro before the international Washington Convention for the Protection of Foreign Investments, and in accordance with the arbitration rules of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL), an investment arbitration procedure was initiated against Montenegro for compensation of the entire damage done," the announcement states.
They point out that Montenegro was obliged to protect foreign investments in accordance with internationally assumed obligations, and that the behavior of state authorities "clearly indicated serious omissions and illegal actions against Atlas Group and its companies, it was accepted in the arbitration procedure".
They say that Knežević was forced to initiate an arbitration procedure in order to protect his interests and recover illegally confiscated property. A severance request of EUR 500 million was made, which is estimated to have been damaged by Atlas Capital Holding Limited, Meljine Complex Limited and the president of Atlas Group, as a result of a politically motivated campaign against Knežević's investments in Montenegro, which also includes two banks - Atlas Banka and Invest Bank Montenegro (IBM), and the project of building hotel complexes on the seashore," the announcement reads, among other things.
"Duško Knežević's decision is to freely return to Montenegro and to prove before the judicial authorities the absurdity of the accusations against him by Milivoje Katnić, who was finally brought to justice... The question for the Ministry of Finance and Prime Minister Milojko Spajić is to are they ready to accept the offered agreement with the legal team of Duško Knežević and Atlas Grupa, or will they risk losing the case before the Arbitration Court in The Hague, in which case they would have to pay several hundred million euros to the injured party, which would seriously threaten the Montenegrin budget and negatively reflected on the credit rating of Montenegro, which would affect new debts abroad," asked Atlas Group.
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