Even after ten months, the Podgorica Basic Prosecutor's Office has not determined whether any of the officers of the Spu prison broke the law during the January fight with the prisoners.
In Pavilion B of the Penitentiary on January 14, inmates and officers first verbally and then physically confronted each other.
After the incident, conflicting information came from that institution - the prisoners and their relatives claimed for days that the guards were beating the convicts, while the administration denied it. The result of the fierce confrontation was nine injuries - six guards and three prisoners.
The prosecution is still investigating whether among the officers of the Institute for the Execution of Criminal Sanctions there are those guilty of the fight.
"According to the report that was submitted to the Supreme State Prosecutor's Office from the Basic State Prosecutor's Office in Podgorica, we inform you that in this particular case a case has been opened against 10 persons. The case is in the investigation phase," the VDT office of Ivica Stanković replied to "News".
In contrast to that procedure, prosecutors needed twenty days to indict nine prisoners. Goran Vukčević (36), Luka Lučić (33), Srđan Vujović (38), Mirko Kontić (35), Milivoje Spasojević (26), Dejan Dedić (24), Vladimir Zindović (33), Petar Damjanović (35) and Dejan Parađina (35) On February 4, Miloš Prelević, Boban Nikčević, Ivan Popović, Vuk Ivanović, Predrag Radulović, and Radomir Bošković were accused of assaulting officials and inflicting serious and minor bodily injuries on ZIKS officials.
The proceedings against the nine of them are ongoing before the judge of the Danilovgrad Basic Court Sonja Keković.
The defense attorney of Vukčević, Vujović and Dedić, lawyer Branko Anđelić, assessed that the fact that the proceedings against the officials are still in the investigation phase is the best indicator of everyone's equality before the law.
"From the same life event, the same number of defendants, almost identical acts of committing a criminal offense, the same criminal offense, two cases. Prisoners already facing conviction, prison officials still in the investigation phase?! An example that best explains the 'equality' of everyone before the law, efficiency and promptness of the prosecutor's office when it has an interest in it, or when it doesn't," Anđelić said.
During the court proceedings, the prisoners and the prison guards each stuck to their own truths - the prisoners claimed that they were victims, and the ZIKS officers claimed the opposite.
Footage from the surveillance cameras, which was viewed in the courtroom, refuted the commander's claims that on January 14, they left the KP dormitory bare-handed and headed for the training ground, where a minute later a fight broke out between them and the prisoners.
In the video, which shows a time of about twenty minutes after the fight, a large group of convicts, including the accused, can be seen returning to the pavilion. Some of the accused are carrying metal bars in their hands, and two of them are carrying weights. Allegedly, they used those props in the fight.
"Someone is bothered by the truth"
Attorney Branko Anđelić assessed that the actions of the prosecution show that it is not in anyone's interest to reveal the truth about what happened behind the walls of Spu:
"When you add to all this the persistent avoidance of the prosecutor's office to allow us to copy the medical reports in which the injuries caused by the brutal beating of the prisoners were noted, it is clear that someone has an interest in not knowing the truth".
He asked if the case in which the prison officials are accused is so complicated that an indictment cannot be filed in 10 months.
"Is it more complicated than murder or organized crime in which indictments are regularly filed over a period of six months? From a case with about 20 defendants for multiple crimes? Or is the prisoner's conviction pending here, wouldn't that absolve the guilt of the prison officials ?", Anđelić asked.
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