Six judges profited nearly 400,000 euros from selling apartments bought at a state discount, Vijesti reveals

Six senior Montenegrin judges earned nearly 400,000 euros by selling the apartments they bought on privileged terms in mid-2020, as an investigation published on Monday by the newspaper Vijesti reveals. According to the report, the judges claim they did not breach the Code of Ethics in force at the time and that they declared all the transactions to the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption (ASK).

They are Snežana Armenko, president of the Constitutional Court; Ivana Beciq, a judge at the Basic Court of Podgorica; Ana Perović Vojinović, a former judge of the Administrative Court and now a special prosecutor; Dragan Babović, a judge at the High Court of Podgorica; Maja Živaljević, a judge at the High Court for Misdemeanours; and Evica Durutović, a former Court of Appeal judge, now retired. The apartments were allocated through the Judicial Council’s competition of 12 October 2018 for resolving the housing issue of judicial officials.

The project, Vijesti writes, was carried out in cooperation with the Government, the Capital City, the Supreme Court, the Judicial Council and the Solidarity Housing Construction Fund, with the company “Čelebić” as contractor, and cost over 7 million euros. A total of 73 apartments were distributed in two buildings in Podgorica’s Stari Aerodrom neighbourhood, plus 39 garage spaces; the price was 626.64 euros per square metre, while a garage space cost 5,240 euros. The final list of beneficiaries was published on 1 February 2019, and 64 judges had applied. Bank loans were taken out from October 2019 to July 2020. According to Monstat data, the average market price in Podgorica at the time was 1,186 euros per square metre — so the “discount” the judges gained amounted to about 560 euros per square metre.

Vijesti’s investigation also details each judge’s profit. Armenko bought in June 2020 a 110-square-metre apartment plus a garage for 68,710 + 5,240 euros and sold it in May 2022 for about 159,500 euros, making a profit of about 90,000 euros; she says she lived there for two years, declared all the transactions and did not breach the Code of Ethics. Beciq bought in May 2020 an 81-square-metre apartment for 50,700 euros and sold it in June 2025 for about 171,000 euros, a profit of about 120,000 euros; she lived there for five years with her husband and two children. Perović Vojinović bought 101 square metres plus a garage for 68,530 euros and sold it in 2021 for 108,000 euros, a profit of just under 45,000 euros; the judges’ Code of Ethics Commission gave her an opinion that she had not breached the Code. Babović bought 45 square metres for 28,198 euros and sold it in April 2021, with a potential profit of about 27,000 euros. Živaljević bought 63 square metres for 39,478 euros and sold it to Bosniak Party MP Adel Omeragić, making a profit of nearly 35,000 euros. Durutović bought 75 square metres for 46,998 euros and sold it in December 2022 for about 111,000 euros, a profit of nearly 64,000 euros.

As context, Vijesti recalls that the former director of ASK, Jelena Perović, must pay the state 58,539.70 euros in difference after selling the apartment she bought on privileged terms without having served five years in judicial office — a decision confirmed in May by the High Court of Podgorica.