Action for Human Rights (HRA) protested against the decision of the basic state prosecutor in Podgorica, Maja Knežević, to dismiss the criminal charges for the second time against all ten reported officers of the Police Administration, from the Podgorica Security Center, under whose jurisdiction Jovan Grujičić was located on the 26th. May 2020.
They point out that the medical findings "confirmed that he was tortured in order to force a statement from him". "Grujičić was then forced to 'confess' to the commission of a criminal act that he did not commit - placing explosive devices at the house of Duško Golubović and the Grand bar - and in the meantime, the court acquitted him of those accusations," HRA announced.
In that non-governmental organization, they believe that the decision to dismiss the criminal complaint was made without conducting an effective investigation, which would have been "urgent, thorough and impartial". Jovan Grujičić's attorney, lawyer Damir Lekić, filed a complaint with the Higher State Prosecutor's Office in Podgorica against the new decision to dismiss the criminal complaint, and on September 9, HRA filed a complaint with the Prosecutor's Council for the second time due to the negligent and illegal work of the state prosecutors in that case.
They asked the Acting Supreme State Prosecutor, Maja Jovanović, that the investigation should now be taken over by the Supreme State Prosecutor's Office.
"HRA reminds that in the investigation of the 'bomb attacks' on the Grand bar and the house of Duško Golubović, an employee of the ANB and, later, of the Police Directorate, three people were abused in the police in order to extort testimony. That it was a planned use of torture is also indicated by the fact that is the same police officer, Dalibor Ljekočević, accused of abusing two people in that investigation, Marko Boljević and Benjamin Mugoša. In addition to police officer Ljekočević, prosecutor Romina Vlahović accused four other police officers, Bojan Vujačić, Nemanja Vujošević, of extorting statements from Boljević. Ivan Peruničić and Danilo Grbović. However, no one was charged with abusing the third, Jovan Grujičić. The first three accused of abusing Boljević were also reported for torturing Grujičić, and confirmed that they interrogated him, however, prosecutor Knežević dismissed the charges against them." , the announcement states.
The beginning of the trial of the accused for extorting testimony from Marko Boljević, which was supposed to take place on September 15 before the Basic Court in Podgorica, was postponed to October 13. The beginning of the trial for extorting testimony from Benjamin Mugoša is scheduled for October 3.
"We remind you that Jovan Grujičić was in the Special Hospital for Psychiatry, when his therapy was unreasonably terminated in order to put him in a state of anxiety, and then he was taken to CB Podgorica, where he was abused by forcing him to make a false confession with blows, electric shocks and threats acts that he did not commit. Despite the fact that the abuse was confirmed by medical findings, and even though police officers have already been accused of abusing other people in the same investigation, no one has been prosecuted for extorting a statement from Grujičić for over two years, HRA added.
"Here, on the one hand, the organized extortion of statements in the police is covered up, while, on the other hand, the real perpetrators of the "bomb attacks" on the Grand and the Golubović house are not revealed. We once again appeal to the director of the Police Directorate, Zoran Brđanin, and the acting VDT, Maja Jovanović, not to allow the perpetrators of all these crimes to go unpunished, and especially not the perpetrators of police torture," said Tea Gorjanc Prelević, executive director of Action for Human Rights.
The NGO reminds that on March 8 of this year, prosecutor Knežević issued a decision for the first time in which she dismissed the criminal charges against all ten reported officers of the Police Directorate in whose custody Grujičić was on May 26, 2020.
After that, in May 2022, the Higher State Prosecutor's Office in Podgorica, acting on the complaint of Grujicic's lawyer, judged that the dismissal of the criminal complaint was "premature and based on an incompletely established factual situation".
"On that occasion, the ODT was ordered to fully determine the facts of this case, and then to make a fair and legal decision. However, the ODT has now rejected the criminal complaint again, without acting according to the instructions of the Higher State Prosecutor's Office, because the facts of this case and have not been determined further," HRA states.
They said that prosecutor Knežević, when dismissing the criminal complaint, stated both times that, "allegedly, it is obvious that none of the reported officers who interrogated Grujičić and were continuously in charge of him did torture, because they did not confess to the crime, and Grujičić could not recognized them because they were masked".
"It was logical for the prosecutor Knežević, after the case was returned by the Higher State Prosecutor's Office, to repeat the act of identification that she had previously negligently carried out in the immediate presence of the suspects, without taking into account the brutal torture that Grujičić was exposed to, which caused him trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder. Despite his lawyer's request, this was not done and the decision was based on previously given statements. Also, it was not explained in any way how it is possible that five inspectors from the same police station were charged for extorting statements by torturing other people within the same investigation (Benjamina Mugoša and Marko Boljević), while no one, including their manager, is accused of torturing Grujičić," added HRA.
On the list of suspects according to the criminal complaint were Miloš Vučinić, former head of the Security Department of the Criminal Police in CB Podgorica and Srđan Korać, the current head of the Criminal Police Station for the Suppression of Blood Offenses and Domestic Violence, as well as inspectors Vukašin Leković, Dalibor Ljekočević, Bojan Vujačić, Nemanja Vujošević, Radoman Vujičić, Miodrag Jovović, Ivan Peruničić and Ljubisav Striković, who, according to the written documentation, dealt with Grujičić and his case "on the day he was tortured in CB Podgorica", the statement reminds.
In the meantime, Dalibor Ljekočević, Bojan Vujačić, Nemanja Vujošević and Ivan Peruničić have been suspended, because criminal proceedings are being conducted against them for extorting statements from Marko Boljević and Benjamin Mugoša, HRA points out.
"More than two years have passed since the torture in this case, and still no one has been prosecuted," HRA concludes, reminding that Grujičić is represented by lawyer Damir Lekić, within the HRA program financially supported by the UN Fund for Victims of Torture (UNVFVT).
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