Lucic: Telekom will file an appeal next week regarding the shutdown of MTS in Kosovo

Vladimir Lucic, the CEO of 'Telekom Serbia', announced today that Telekom would file an appeal next week against the shutdown of MTS in Kosovo for a bizarre reason and that if the appeal isn't accepted, they would seek a temporary court order to suspend the contested decision, as reported by RTV.

"We are filing an appeal as we have the right to do. We waited for two weeks because, according to the law on access to information, we requested information about when they copied the passport of our employee. We haven't seen that information in any official documentation, and we haven't received a response. So, we assume that this information is inaccurate, that allegedly our employee at one point identified himself with a passport when submitting some documents, which is an absurd reason," Lucic stated for Tanjug.

He reminded that Telekom Serbia had been informed that their company, MTS in Kosovo, would be removed from the Kosovo registry, with the explanation that they had violated the constitution somehow.

As Lucic emphasized, Telekom Serbia is the owner of that company.

"Imagine someone telling you that a member of your management doesn't have a valid passport and they want to shut down your company because of that. Even the number of passports they mentioned is incorrect," Lucic noted.

He stated that MTS was properly registered in Kosovo according to Kosovo laws and that responsible individuals were registered with Pristina ID cards.

"We will file the appeal next week with comprehensive legal arguments, and the only way out of this, as I see it, is for them to acknowledge that they've made a mistake," Lucic emphasized.

He added that there were two reasons why this had happened to Telekom in Kosovo.

"Since Kurti came to power, there has been increased pressure on Serbs and all institutions in Kosovo, and MTS is the largest Serbian company with 250 employees and 80,000 mobile and fixed-line users. Since he took office, we've been a thorn in their side, and this is not the first time we've faced pressure from them. The second reason is that he tried the same approach three months ago to shut down the strongest opposition media, Klan Kosova, in their 'Business Register,' because their registration stated Pec, Republic of Serbia. When the international community reacted, there were protests by journalists, and the court issued a temporary order to suspend that decision," Lucic said.

Lucic noted that Kurti wanted to score points by attempting to create a balance, not only shutting down Klan Kosova but also other companies with alleged irregularities, and finally solving something that had been bothering him.

"However, our registration is completely in order compared to Klan Kosova, so they had to write in our resolution - Republic of Serbia, that is to say, a bizarre reason - that one of our employees has a passport from the Republic of Serbia. If the appeal isn't accepted, we will seek a temporary court order to stop the execution, just as was done with Klan Kosova. So, we have two legal instances. We have trust in the international community overseeing the Brussels Agreement, and MTS was a good example of one part of the Brussels Agreement functioning," Lucic added.