Ministry of Interior and Public Administration is still fails to provide information on the case of issuing Montenegrin passport to Thaksin Shinawatra, former Thai Prime Minister, convicted for corruption.
At the beginning of May, using Law on Free Access to Information, MANS has requested from Ministry to publish complete documentation related to procedure of granting Montenegrin citizenship and issuing the passport to Shinawatra. MANS also requested information on venue and date when Shinawatra was handed the passport.
According to Law on Free Access to Information, Ministry was obliged to provide the requested information within 8 days. Since that deadline have expired, MANS today initiated the procedure that could end up with submitting an appeal to the Administrative Court against Ministry of Interior, if this institution continue to ignore this case.
Information that MANS requested will, without doubt, confirm that in process of issuing passport to Shinawatra, official powers were misused as well as violated the Law on Montenegrin Citizenship. In that sense, it is of utmost importance for the Ministry to disclose these information as soon as possible, so that responsibility for this case could be individualized and preserved overall integrity of this institution.
In that light, this case could have significant impact of Montenegrin EU integration process, especially on final decision regarding visa liberation regime, so interest of Montenegrin citizens to be fully informed about this case cannot be questioned.
So far, silence of the Ministry is in favor only to Shinawatra trying to escape justice, but also those individuals within this institution that want to escape responsibility for issuing Montenegrin passport to international criminal, banned from entering EU countries.
We hope that Ministry of Interior will not have any problem to determine whose interest they are responsible to protect.
MANS is also using this opportunity to once more call upon Minister of Interior, Jusuf Kalamperovic, to immediately allow access to all information relevant to Shinawatra case, therefore prove on concrete example that his institution is ready to respond to challenges of EU integration process and adoption of EU standards.
Vanja Ćalović,
Executive Director
