On the list of almost 50 awarded officials of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Police Directorate this year, the name of the until recently head of the regional center South Miloš Vučinić, who was awarded for the merits and results of the police during the summer tourist season on the coast.
The certificate of appreciation and award, which went to Vučinić, caused a series of reactions because his police career in the past few years was marked by accusations of alleged abuse, as well as deception and cover-up of cases of police torture and torture...
from Cetinje Milo Ivanisevic accused Vučinić of being with a colleague Ratko Popović allegedly abused in February 2018 at an intersection in Cetinje. Although a video clip was published at the time, which clearly shows Vučinić holding a gun pointed at Ivanišević, and then hitting him on the head, the Cetinje prosecutor did not find elements for criminal responsibility.
Vučinić was also the head of criminology at the Podgorica Security Center when three related cases of torture and torture in the police occurred during 2020 - Jovan Grujičić, Marko Boljevic i Benjamin Mugoša, who were forced to admit under beatings that they had thrown explosives at the house of a long-time operative Duško Golubović and the "Grand" bar.
Executive director of the NGO Action for Human Rights Tea Gorjanc Prelevic she reminded that Vučinić was never punished or prosecuted in any way for the abuse in Cetinje, which was documented by video.
Also, as stated by Gorjanc Prelević, Vučinić, as an elder in the Podgorica Security Center, in 2020 managed a police operation in which the police tortured three men in order to force false confessions from them "and he did not help to determine the responsibility of those who did it in his competencies".
"Although all this happened before the change of government in August 2020, the minister Filip Adzic he did not change his approach, he did not promote the 'zero tolerance for torture' that is expected from Montenegro, but he prevented the suspension of police inspectors accused of extorting statements with severe violence, stood in their defense and glorified them. Now he also rewarded Vučinić. Such an approach could be expected from the minister of Saudi Arabia, rather than from a country that aspires to join the EU," the executive director of HRA stressed.
She assessed that with this award for Vučinić, we all received the message that policemen are allowed to do anything, both during the time of the DPS and today.
"After all, so far no one has been charged even for the photographed police torture, published on SKY and in the media. This humiliates not only the victims of that torture, but also the entire state, which presents itself as not up to European values," says Gorjanc Prelevic.
The award for elder Vučinić was, he says, a surprise for Nataša Grujičić, the young man's mother Jovana, who was taken from the Special Psychiatric Hospital in Dobrota in May 2020 by criminal police officers in Podgorica, where he was being treated and where he was previously denied even regular therapy for non-medical reasons, i.e. because of a polygraph, the night before the takeover.
Grujičić was then in the office of the then director of the hospital in Dobrota Petar Abramović was taken over by masked inspectors from Podgorica, and then he spent two days in custody, where according to official medical findings it was confirmed that he had been tortured.
It was established that the young man was abused with electric shockers and beaten with a baseball bat...Jovan Grujičić proved with the force of law that during torture in the police he was forced to falsely accuse himself of planting explosive devices.
"Vučinić has now been awarded, and we have been claiming for the fourth year that he was a direct link between the police and the hospital, from where Jovan was kidnapped by the police with phantoms. Director Abramović stated in court as a witness that he was contacted directly by Miloš Vučinić regarding Jovan's takeover and that he negotiated the handover with him. The director also said that it was Vučinić who guaranteed that he would return Jovan to the hospital during the working day, and that after the expiration of that time, he did not answer his phone for even two days," said Jovan Grujičić's mother.
She also reminded that the then director of the hospital deceived and protected the police in court, and was later pressed by other evidence, at the end of November 2021, he entered into a plea agreement with the prosecution, where he said that he lied in court that Jovan Grujičić was not taken from his offices.
"It was a deception of Abramović, who protected the police and gave false testimony, which is why he later received a conditional final verdict. I must remind you that it was Vučinić who was the head of CB Podgorica where Jovan was tortured for two days, where he was treated inhumanely and because of which he is still suffering health consequences. They threatened his health, and Elder Vučinić had to know everything about that. As a family, we do not want to falsely accuse anyone, as they tried to do with Jovan, we just ask that the responsibility of all police officers, as well as the prosecutor's office, be impartially investigated," Nataša Grujičić said.
At the end of September of this year, the HRA expressed its protest because it is the prosecutor in Podgorica Maja Knezevic, although her exemption from the case that was not decided, was rejected for the fourth time against all ten police officers reported for torturing Jovan Grujičić. That is why the HRA stated that it expects from the acting VDT Tatjana Begović to finally assign the case to another prosecutor and ensure an effective investigation.
"This is a case of obvious police torture with the aim of extorting a false statement and obstruction of justice by synchronized abuse of official position by several police officers," HRA states.
So far, no one has been officially prosecuted for the torture of Jovan Grujičić, and on the list from the criminal report submitted by the lawyer on behalf of the family and HRA Damir Lekic there are Miloš Vučinić and Srdjan Korac and inspectors Vukašin Leković, Dalibor Ljekocevic, Bojan Vujacic, Nemanja Vujosevic, Radoman Vujičić, Miodrag Jovović, Ivan Peruničić i Ljubisav Striković.
Inspectors Ljekočević, Vujačić, Vujošević and Peruničić were suspended only at the end of April this year and criminal proceedings are being conducted against them for extorting statements from Marko Boljević and Benjamin Mugoša.
Officer on standby and leave
Miloš Vučinić, who was the head of the regional center South for half a year, left that scheduling solution at his own request and is currently on vacation.
He was supposed to go to Ljubljana at the beginning of September as a liaison officer at the Embassy of Montenegro in Slovenia.
Although his new work engagement was almost certain, there were problems due to the fact that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs does not have a systematized position for liaison officers in Slovenia.
That legal obstacle has stopped the process of sending Vucinic on a diplomatic mission for the time being.
Bonus video:
