Lucic still barred from Kosovo, court fight up to 12 months
The Telekom Srbija chief executive says he appealed, the body he appealed to declared itself not competent, and he has now gone to court.
Telekom Srbija chief executive Vladimir Lucic told the television station K1 that he is still banned from entering Kosovo and Metohija, and Tanjug carried his remarks on October 19. Pristina institutions imposed the ban in August, and Lucic claims the Kosovo interior minister issued the decision unlawfully.
Why does Lucic consider the Kosovo entry ban unlawful?
Lucic gave his legal assessment bluntly: “That decision is completely unlawful on eight legal grounds.” He did not list those grounds in the part of the statement Tanjug relayed. Instead, he explained how he sees the reasoning behind such decisions: “But they made decisions like that counting on nobody appealing.”
He says he did appeal. He described the procedure this way: “I appealed, and interestingly, there is an institution I had to appeal to within about 30 days.” At the same time he opened a second track: “Just in case, I also launched a court case.”
The institution declared itself not competent
According to Lucic, the institution he sent his appeal to refused to deal with the case. He assessed its conduct in the same answer:
“The institution I had the right to appeal to declared itself not competent, obviously they are running away from this case, because it is clear that this so-called interior minister made this decision in an unlawful way.”
Lucic added “so-called” to the title of interior minister, whom he does not name in the statement. The name of the institution he appealed to is not given either.
Asked how long these proceedings have been running, he said about two months. For what comes next he offered his own estimate, without saying a court had set any deadline: “So it looks to me like they will be tormenting each other in court for about six to 12 months.”
What does Lucic say about Pristina’s treatment of Telekom Srbija?
Lucic claims Pristina discriminates against Telekom Srbija simply because it is a Serbian company, and against him because he is a Serb. He explained his view in a longer statement:
“How can you trust a political administration, whatever they sign, whether they will deliver. And second, it is completely clear that they do not want any Serbian company down there, because in effect, by manipulating their own laws, they are trying to make it harder for us to do business there.”
The part of the statement that was relayed does not say which signatures and promises Lucic had in mind. The material available to us contains no response from Pristina institutions to his claims, so this is a one-sided account of the dispute, as the Telekom Srbija chief executive presented it to K1.
