The former President of the Supreme Court, Vesna Medenica, repeatedly urged judge Hasnije Simonović to make decisions in her favor, but Simonović declined, indicating that those cases had already been resolved.

The two communicated about this situation through the Telegram app.

Less than a month after her resignation under political duress, Medenica reached out to Simonović, who is also her godmother, regarding a dispute involving the company “Carine” and the Municipality of Plužine.

The owner of Carine is Cedomir Popović, who shares a godparental bond with Medenica.

The municipality of Plužine has been in a protracted dispute with his company for years over property rights, particularly regarding land where more than half is arable in Piva. This conflict began after the 2009 introduction of the Law on Property and Legal Relations, which converted usage rights into ownership rights, leading to the annulment of all favorable rulings for the municipality.

Following this, the Municipality requested Popović to pay real estate taxes, which remained unsettled until the company’s bankruptcy in early 2012.

“I’m unable to catch you on one issue, yet you’re working tirelessly to ensure I’m not late on some tax for Pišče. Municipality of Plužine and ‘Customs,'” Medenica texted the Supreme Court judge on January 20, 2021.

Judge Simonović responded that the matter had already been completed and sent to the registry office, but Medenica asserted that the appraiser had “inflated” the property value…

“Oh, how they’re grabbing. It’s an appraiser hired by the Municipality, and they’ve inflated the value. There exists an earlier decision by the Administrative Court that precedes the current case. There’s also a purchase and sale contract for just a few cents during the appraisal period. How they’re trying to grab that from me,” Medenica messaged.

She received clarification from the judge that a $2.5 million loan had been taken out on the land. Medenica then expressed her effectiveness while noting their inability to reverse the decision:

“I had no completed cases, only four, hence I needed to address this (a loan agreement of $2.5 million is in the case, so an assessment was performed on part of the property whose market value closely matches that determined by the Revenue Administration, and it’s not entirely agricultural land, as stated in the accounting. There’s also a lot of construction land, forest land, and other categories according to the cadastre, which are worth significantly more (nothing can be done in our country regarding cancellation)).”

“It is what it is,” concluded Medenica.

The company “Agro Carine doo” from Podgorica obtained a $2.5 million loan, as mentioned by Simonović, aimed at expanding a sheep farm, producing primary agricultural products, and linking agriculture with tourism on the Pišče and Piva rivers.

Based on official records from the Central Register of Business Entities, that company was dissolved on July 20, 2017, and its founder was “Carine Podgorica,” owned by Čedomir Popović.

Previously, “Vijesti” reported that, according to a 2016 balance sheet, “Agro Carine” invested €66,685 in fixed assets while holding €2,109,395 in short-term financial placements.

After Medenica’s arrest in May 2022, Popović told “Vijesti” that he was unaware of any investigation into the judge by the Special State Prosecutor’s Office for court cases involving his company.

He also claimed that their company faced several disputes in Montenegrin courts and that they never influenced judicial decisions:

“In the past two years alone, the Supreme Court has made rulings in several disputes, resulting in ‘Customs’ paying out nearly €400,000,” Popović stated at the time.

She also inquired about mothers.

Three months after her inquiry regarding that case, Medenica sent the judge an urgent message regarding another matter on April 23rd, saying: “This was forwarded to me from HN, you know who…”

The godmother replied that she would check, but based on the number of cases, it appeared resolved: “Similar to the other mothers.”

“This pertains to Vesna Vučković’s case, which I believe we reviewed yesterday (after it was overturned by the Constitutional Court), and I think we dismissed it and sent it back to the Administrative Court for a new ruling. Please verify this as we were deliberating on whether to confirm and reinforce the grounds or to overturn it, and I think we ultimately chose to overturn it,” Simonović informed her an hour later.

Medenica texted that she had called Vesna but received no response.

Ten minutes later, she received a message from Judge Simonović:

“The case is now Už 3/21, and we have terminated it. Now, Vesna tells me”…

The court documents obtained by “Vijesti” reveal that a decision regarding that case was rendered the previous day.

The panel, led by Judge Stanka Vučinić and including Judges Simonović and Vukčević, later approved the request to review the court’s decision, overturned the ruling from the Administrative Court, and sent the case back for retrial and decision-making.

In this instance, JV from Novljan contested a decision from the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare, which dismissed her appeal against the Center for Social Work for the Municipality of Herceg Novi, rejecting her request for recognition of compensation rights based on the birth of three or more children.

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