The European Court of Human Rights has rejected a request by the Belgrade Radic Law Office for a ban on the Law on Freedom of Religion implemented in Montenegro
European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) rejected the request to ban Montenegro from implementing its Law on Freedom of Religion until the Constitutional Court decides on the law’s constitutionality or until a deal with the Serbian Orthodox Church is concluded, the Montenegrin Government said.
Montenegrin Government’s Public Relations Office said the law firm had filed the motion on January 27 and January 30, 2020, asking for a temporary measure that would ban the Montenegrin state bodies from implementing the Law on the Freedom of Religion, until the Constitutional Court of Montenegro assesses the law’s constitutionality or until the state institutions reach an agreement with the Serbian Orthodox Church.
European court dismissed this request and has informed Montenegro’s representative in Strasbourg about the decision, the Government said.
They recall that in 2012, Montenegro won a dispute before the European Court of Human Rights following a lawsuit filed by the Serbian Orthodox Church, which demanded restitution of church property in Montenegro.
“The Strasbourg court then dismissed the SPC lawsuit, which was also joined by the Republic of Serbia, as purely ill-founded and inadmissible, finding that the complainants had neither ‘existing property’ nor ‘legitimate expectation’ to recover the property they were seeking restitution of. The Government assessed that the court decision is “yet another evidence that the objections towards the Law on Freedom of Religion are entirely of political and ideological in nature, and have no grounds in the domestic or the international law”, as RTCG reports. /b92
