The Special State Prosecutor’s Office of Montenegro has brought charges against nine former ministers and three other individuals on suspicion of abusing their official positions during the allocation of housing and housing loans.
Prosecutor Vukas Radonjić announced on 4 July that the defendants are suspected of causing damage of over 2.6 million euros to the state budget.
Among the accused are five deputies – Predrag Bošković, Dragica Sekulić, and Suzana Pribilović from the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS), and Ivan Brajović and Damir Šehović from the Social Democrats.
Former ministers Budimir Šegrt, Suad Numanović, and Sanja Vlahović from the DPS, and Osman Nurković from the Bosniak Party are also accused of abuse of office.
Abuse of office is punishable by imprisonment from two to twelve years.
Outgoing Prime Minister Dritan Abazović filed a criminal complaint against them in mid-October 2022, claiming that the state had been damaged for around two million euros.
Commenting on the indictment, Abazović expressed hope that the state would seek compensation “if we have a final judicial outcome”.
“I regret that 500 apartments were given to people who politically damaged Montenegro with billions of euros,” he said.
The accused ministers were members of the Government Commission for Housing Affairs, which, in addition to government members, allocated housing and loans to representatives of other authorities, such as deputies, judges, and prosecutors.
The State Prosecutor’s Office accuses them of granting loans for housing improvement above the stipulated amount of up to 15,000 euros without assessment from the commission of experts of the former Property Administration.
The prosecutor’s office also emphasizes that individual loans amounting to 40,000 euros were granted to officials who requested 30,000 euros in their housing needs applications.
“Of course, exceeding the requested amounts is in violation of the Law on Administrative Procedure and the judicial practice of the Administrative Court of Montenegro,” Prosecutor Radonjić said in the media statement.
This applies, for example, to the case when former President of the Supreme Court Vesna Medenica requested 30,000 euros in assistance, while the Commission decided to grant her 10,000 euros more.
The Prosecutor’s Office also noted that the Government of Duško Marković approved the Commission’s allocation of these loans during 2016-2020.
Therefore, according to the announcement, it has decided to submit a copy of the criminal complaint to the Basic State Prosecutor’s Office in Podgorica to assess whether there are grounds to suspect that the Prime Minister and government members “committed the continuous criminal offense of negligent work in service”.
