A minor LH (2006) was detained due to reasonable suspicion that on August 23, in the early hours of the morning, he robbed a store owned by DH at the Old Airport in Podgorica, "Vijesti" unofficially learns.
LH was arrested on Friday evening in the Konik neighborhood of Podgorica, three days after he voluntarily walked away from the "Ljubović" Center for Children and Youth. The acting prosecutor ordered his detention due to the suspicion that he had committed serious theft.
On August 5, LH was placed in "Ljubović" according to the decision of the High Court, after previously spending 60 days in custody. The detention and the measure of temporary accommodation were determined due to suspicions that this juvenile killed an elderly woman in early June and covered her lifeless body with wooden waste.
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A seventy-two-year-old corpse FB he was found on June 6 at Vrele Ribnički, and on the same day the police informed the public that they had arrested an older minor on suspicion of having committed that crime.
"Vijesti" previously announced that, according to the court files that the editorial office had access to, LH had escaped before, from the detention facilities in Podgorica. On Friday, the Police Directorate confirmed these allegations and said that this person escaped from their premises on June 1st and that an employee of that institution will be subject to disciplinary action as a result.
"Regarding your interest in the removal of the mentioned minor from the official premises of the Podgorica Security Department, we inform you that the said event took place on June 1, that the person was in the official premises due to another criminal offense and that proceedings were initiated against one officer for a more serious violation of official duties", answered "Vijesti" on Friday from UP, which is headed by him Nikola Terzic.
The case of the minor LH, who is suspected of the criminal offense of aggravated murder, and by court decision was placed in "Ljubović", an open-type institution, pointed to the shortcomings of the system and the capacities of the state in relation to minor perpetrators of the most serious crimes.
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The director of "Ljubovića" has suggested this several times before. Nina Delevic, and other interlocutors, including a lawyer Vasilije Radulović, author of the publication "Measures and sanctions against juvenile offenders", and lawyer Veselin Radulović.
"Unfortunately, this case shows the shortcomings of the criminal procedure against minors. What should be emphasized is that the Law on Treatment of Minors in Criminal Proceedings is largely in line with international acts, and also offers good legal solutions. However, as such, unfortunately, it is inconsistent with the Montenegrin reality, because its full application is prevented, first of all, by infrastructural deficiencies, and then by personnel", Radulović told "Vijesta" earlier.
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The law on the treatment of minors in criminal proceedings foresees two institutional measures that cannot be implemented in Montenegro - referral to a prison-type institution and referral to a specialized institution, but these institutions do not yet exist in Montenegro.
"We do not have a prison-type educational institution, and then after 60 days, which according to the law is the longest detention period for a minor for any criminal offense, the court can no longer order detention, and those persons, as in the specific case, are referred in 'Ljubović', because essentially there is no other institution", said Radulović earlier.
He also said that "Ljubović" does not have the capacities and conditions in any sense to provide adequate treatment of persons like LH, but "nor to provide, first of all, the safety and security of the staff and other residents, who are threatened by the arrival of such a person, a person who is suspected of committing a serious crime".
Lawyer Radulović, while the search for LH was still underway, also said that "there is a serious danger that he will commit and repeat a criminal offense" and that "the state must provide an institution where persons accused of committing the most serious criminal offenses for minors would be accommodated".
"Ljubović" is an institution of child and social protection, open type and does not have police security.
In the case of LH, the director turned to the police for help, and they asked for 24-hour assistance from that institution.
On Friday, UP confirmed to "Vijesta" that they visited "Ljubović" upon invitation, and stated in their reply that "they were informed of their legal obligations for the implementation of measures under the Act on Treatment of Minors in Criminal Procedures, and that officials will of the criminal police periodically visit the said institution in accordance with the powers of the police prescribed by law".
There were no police
The director of "Ljubovića" told "Vijesta" yesterday that the Law referred to by the police in Article 156 regulates that the institutional measure of referral to a non-labor institution will be more closely regulated by the regulations issued by the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare, and that in accordance with that, specifically, the Rulebook on closer conditions for the execution of an institutional measure, referral to a non-institutional type institution, Article 13, regulates that the institution, i.e. the "Ljubović" Center, proposes to the court the transfer of the user who made the decision on placement - if the user has voluntarily moved away several times.
"The High Court was informed of this on August 8, 8, in an official letter, where it was presented that from 2023 until that day, LH had 2020 arbitrary removals, and that it is debatable how long the user will stay. After the escape attempt from 'Ljubović' on August 12, 19, a letter was immediately sent to the CB Podgorica, where a constant police escort was requested, and it was presented that LH is under increased supervision of the educational staff and educators until it is determined," said Delević.
After that, she added, they were visited by a juvenile inspector who interviewed LH.
"Until the escape, which happened three days after that, no inspector visited us again, and we did not receive an answer to that letter," she said.
"Vijesti" had an insight into the request of the management of "Ljubović" in which they ask UP for assistance in the case of minor LH
Delević repeated that "Ljubović" is a "non-institutional (open) type" institution.
"We do not have the legal authority to treat users as if they were in custody, nor do we have the staff and capacity to do so. After all, the fact that the user is at high risk of arbitrary removal is evidenced by the fact that he managed to escape from the custody units of CB Podgorica, where there are more policemen on duty, not in addition to bare-handed security guards and educational staff, which also include women," said Delević yesterday. "News".
As she said, this must be an alarm for changes.
"The emphasis is not on shifting responsibility from the judicial authorities, i.e. the courts and the prosecution, to the UP or 'Ljubović' (or vice versa), I think that this example must be an alarm to all of us that something in the system must be changed and that it must no longer be allowed to repeat - either the opening of an institution for perpetrators of the most serious crimes or the amendment of the Act on Treatment of Minors in Criminal Procedure, where the maximum detention would not be 60 days, but in the Administration for the Execution of Criminal Sanctions (the section for minors) they would await the finality of the verdict". said Delevic.
Lawyers previously warned that, if the juvenile commits a new criminal offense while at liberty, he could be sentenced to detention for a maximum of 60 days, after which he would again end up in that open-type institution.
Prime Minister Dritan Abazovic yesterday, when asked about the escape of LH from "Ljubović", he said that no one escapes responsibility, but that such things "simply happen", that "this situation is incidental and worrisome... we need to think about how that system would be more efficient".
"... But I don't want to put the blame on the people who, in modest conditions, with insufficient manpower, keep the situation under control," he said.
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