After the Supreme Court decision: Will the Telekom case finally have an epilogue?

Uncategorized · 27/05/2026

The Supreme Court of Montenegro has rejected as inadmissible a request for protection of legality by the Supreme State Prosecutor’s Office in a case known to the public as “Telekom”, which requested a review of the decision of the Council of the Higher Court in Podgorica in the case against suspects Milo Đukanović, Ana Đukanović, Veselin Barović, Oleg Obradović, Damjan Hosta and Tomaš Marvai, which concluded that the statute of limitations had not yet expired for this case, as previously alleged by the prosecution.

Of particular concern is the fact that, more than a decade after the scandal broke, key state institutions are still dealing with procedural issues, instead of the public finally getting an answer as to whether there was corruption during the privatization of Crnogorski Telekom and who bears responsibility for it.

MANS reminds that it was thanks to international investigations and proceedings before American authorities that the existence of corrupt payments related to the privatization of Telekom was confirmed, while for years the Montenegrin judiciary gave the impression that there was no real will to bring this case to an end.

The latest decision of the Supreme Court further opens the issue of the responsibility of a part of the prosecution and judiciary that for years allowed the Telekom case to remain trapped in procedural disputes, without concrete results and without establishing the full responsibility of all actors.

This is another example confirming that without serious vetting in the judiciary and prosecution, it will not be possible to provide independent institutions ready to prosecute high-level corruption cases involving the most politically powerful individuals.

The citizens of Montenegro have the right to know how it is possible that a case that is internationally recognized as a corruption affair still does not have a final epilogue in Montenegro, despite numerous pieces of evidence, international verdicts, and years of public interest.

Following this Supreme Court decision, the previous decision of the High Court that the Telekom case was not time-barred remains in effect. This means that the case can formally proceed and that there is scope for the proceedings to continue before the competent courts.

Now the move is again on the prosecutor’s office and the courts, who need to continue the proceedings and finally show whether there is a willingness to bring this case to an end. That is why it is important to monitor whether this decision will speed up the proceedings or whether we will once again see years of delay without an epilogue.

For MANS, the issue of responsibility of all those who for years allowed the Telekom case to be practically blocked by procedural disputes, instead of focusing on the very essence of the affair and the possible corruption that accompanied the privatization, is particularly important.

Dejan Milovac

Deputy Executive Director