Interior Minister Filip Adžić says that his intention is to cancel the Decision on criteria for acquiring Montenegrin citizenship, which was adopted by the Government of Zdravko Krivokapić, literally on the day when it was voted no-confidence in the parliament.
In an interview with Television Vijesti, Adžić said that more than a thousand and a half people are currently waiting for citizenship, and that so far no citizenship has been issued according to the amended decision.
Adžić also spoke to TV Vijesti about the case of police officer Petar Knežević, as well as whether the security check procedure against police officer Ljubo Milović has been completed and whether he will be fired.
"I think that a certain slowness of the institutions has been shown, it has been shown that those administrative snags, which exist, if someone really wants to, and my view is that there was some kind of obstruction and that in some way they were trying to buy time... whether it succeeded or not, the public will judge, but in any case, what I can say with certainty, according to my information, is that the official Milović will be removed from office," said Adžić.
When asked if Milović was in Montenegro, he said that they had no information that he had left the borders of the country.
When will the proceedings against the police officer Petar Knežević be completed and what sanctions can they expect from him?
Adzic: On this issue, measures and actions were taken under the jurisdiction of the MUP. Also, the Prosecutor's Office reacted there, the Special Police Department took a statement from Knežević's officer, and the Department for Internal Control also conducted an investigation. So, there is also an element of foreignness and there is a procedure by which the SPO would receive information from the neighboring country upon request and only after that we can start some further activities. What I want to say is something that, it seems to me, is interpreted incorrectly in the public - since I have been the Minister of the Interior, Knežević has not been at the head of the Anti-Terrorist Unit.
The police are protesting, they were also in front of the government and are announcing a continuation in August if, among other things, their salaries are not increased? Will you increase their wages and by how much?
Adzic: At the Government session, we made a decision according to which we increased the salary for police officers in one part and in this way tried to replace what is the lost part of their salary. Our next activity goes in the direction of increasing their earnings, but you know that it has to be planned in the budget, that it is only possible from the beginning of 2023, and we are really going in that direction.
Will the Ministry of Interior make a new decision on the criteria for acquiring Montenegrin citizenship and how many requests have been received based on the current decision?
Adzic: I am one of those who advocate a slightly more conservative approach when it comes to obtaining citizenship. I am someone who advocates the amendment of that decision, that is, the annulment of the decision made by former Prime Minister Krivokapić, which was not even made according to all procedures, which is really controversial. As of today, we have received about 1.520 requests, however, these are not only requests that arrived on the basis of the amended decision, but also on the basis of obtaining conditions based on the old decision, and that is certainly not an alarming number.
Hasn't a decision been made on those requests yet?
Adzic: No, so far no citizenship has been issued according to the amended decision
Minister Aleksandar Damjanović confirmed that so far the assets of one Russian citizen in Montenegro have been frozen, although it was initially said that it was 34. Why was this not done and will it be?
Adzic: Given that, based on the list of people who are on the sanctions list, we did not have the complete data of all those citizens, we acted preventively and blocked all those names that matched the names that were on the list determined for sanctions .
The Administration for State Property and Cadastre acted preventively and prevented any possibility that anyone whose last name is the same as those on the list we received in the meantime would sell or transfer that property to another person. That was the intention to prevent any abuse and I think we succeeded in that part.
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