Such severe punishments promote impunity for perpetrators, encourage torture and ill-treatment, violate international human rights standards and seriously call into question the capacity of the judiciary to establish the rule of law.
That's the conclusion of the Basic State Prosecutor's Office (ODT) in Podgorica in the appeal they filed against the verdict by which two people from the city of Sajja, Boro Grgurović and Goran Zejak, were sentenced to one year and five months in prison each for the beating of Milorad Mijo Martinović.
At the end of April, the Prosecutor's Office filed an appeal against the verdict of Podgorica Basic Court judge Nada Rabrenović, demanding higher sentences for Grgurović and Zejak, but also that they be convicted for smashing Martinović's car.
"The first-instance court sentenced the defendants to a lenient sentence, while overestimating and overestimating the mitigating circumstances on the part of the defendants," reads the appeal signed by prosecutor Danka Ivanović Đerić.
In the appeal, it was pointed out that, according to the International Convention against Torture, neither extraordinary circumstances nor orders from superiors can justify torture.
Referring to numerous other international documents, the appeal points out that the sentence at the legal minimum is inappropriately lenient, considering that the Committee against Torture has suggested that in similar cases sentences should range from six to 20 years in prison.
In our criminal law, the criminal offense of torture is punishable by one to eight years in prison.
The prosecution indicates that it is unclear why the court did not accept part of Martinović's testimony that they destroyed his vehicle, when the court itself had already established and accepted Martinović's testimony as clear and true.
"He decisively stated that the police officers who were hitting him, after they moved away from him, the same group of police officers approached his vehicle and started hitting the windows and bodywork of the vehicle with batons and feet...", the complaint states.
The first-instance verdict acquitted the two Sajovics of the charges for destroying Martinović's car.
Their defense lawyer Zdravko Begović, however, claims that it was not proven in the court proceedings that they committed any of the crimes they are accused of.
He told Vijesti that he only received the first-instance verdict two days ago and that he will appeal against it in the coming days.
"I will request that the verdict be annulled and returned for a new decision," Begović said.
In March of this year, Judge Rabrenović sentenced them to one year in prison for torture and half a year for inflicting grievous bodily harm, giving them single prison sentences of one year and five months each.
The judge acquitted them of the charge of destroying and alienating someone else's property, because, as she said, it was not proven that they also broke Martinović's car after the beating.
Explaining the verdict, she pointed out that they received minimum prison sentences for those crimes, because they had not been convicted before and because they are family people with children.
She found no aggravating circumstances for Grgurović and Zejak.
The judge then said that it was proven that two members of the SAJ beat Martinović, which she established from the testimony of the victim and his companions in the vehicle, an inspection of the video recording, as well as medical documentation and expert testimony.
"The defendants did not deny that they hit Martinović, but they said that he behaved aggressively, which was not established by the testimony of the witnesses," said Rabrenović.
She added that 53 members of SAJ were questioned, but that "the video represents the event differently".
Explaining why she acquitted them for the destruction of the vehicle, the judge stated, among other things, that the DNA analysis of the bomb did not match the material with any of the 53 Sajovics, so "the court acquitted them in doubt".
After the sentencing, Martinović assessed that the two convicts were "just puppets of the top of the state, which has volunteers in every job."
Even with additional investigation, they did not determine who beat Martinović
Even with an additional investigation, the prosecution failed to establish anything new in the investigation of the beating of Martinović, who was brutally abused by members of the Special Anti-Terrorist Unit (SAJ), after the Democratic Front protest in October 2015.
The Constitutional Court previously accepted Martinović's appeal due to an ineffective investigation and ordered the prosecution to submit a report to that court by February 8 of this year on what they did to find out who beat him.
Although the video shows that there were many more, only two, who volunteered, ended up on the dock.
The suspended commander of the unit, Radosav Lješković, was previously sentenced to five months in prison for covering up members of the unit he commanded, who beat citizens that evening.
Of that, he served 20 days in prison in Spuz, after which he spent the rest of his sentence being treated in the Brezovik hospital.
He was also granted conditional release for a month and a half before the end of his prison sentence.
Bonus video:
