Action for Human Rights (HRA) announced that the Higher State Prosecutor's Office accepted Jovan Grujičić's complaint for the fourth time and revoked the fourth decision of state prosecutor Maja Knežević to dismiss the criminal complaint filed by Grujičić against two chiefs and eight members of the Criminal Police of the Security Center (CB) Podgorica. for extorting testimony by torture.
Senior State Prosecutor Željko Tomković concluded for the fourth time, according to HRA, that the decision to dismiss the criminal complaint was "again premature and based on incompletely established factual situation".
"We once again appeal to the Acting Supreme State Prosecutor, Tatjana Begović, to prevent the investigation in this important case from being returned to the same State Prosecutor of the Basic State Prosecutor's Office in Podgorica, Maja Knežević. It is obvious that this State Prosecutor, who persistently and baselessly rejects the criminal charges and in which the injured party has no of trust and demands its exemption, cannot provide an effective investigation of torture in accordance with international standards that Montenegro is obliged to respect as a member state of the United Nations, the Council of Europe and a candidate for membership in the European Union," the statement said.
HRA appeals for the investigation to be taken over by the state prosecutor who "will be able and willing to act in accordance with international standards of effective investigation".
"In the case of the torture to which Jovan Grujičić was subjected in CB Podgorica on May 26, 2020, there has been no progress for three and a half years. This kind of stagnation has long since violated the standard of urgency, even though Jovan Grujičić's allegations about the torture he suffered in CB Podgorica were as early as 2021 confirmed by the domestic expert of forensic medicine, Prof. Dr. Dragana Čukić, as well as three foreign experts, Prof. Đorđe Alempijević, Ph.D., Pierre Duterte, Ph.D., and Onder Ozkalipci, Ph.D., with the highest degree of certainty. These are foreign experts who specialize in determining traces of torture".
The HRA states that in July 2023, prosecutor Knežević rejected the criminal complaint for the fourth time against all 10 reported police officers, in whose jurisdiction Grujičić was, according to written documentation, during the period when medical findings confirmed that he was tortured.
"She concluded that there is no reasonable doubt that Grujičić was tortured by one of the reported officers who interrogated him and were constantly in charge of him, because they did not admit it, and he could not recognize them until May 2023. The prosecutor concludes that it is not clear to her how Grujičić remembered some details three years after the critical event and how he recognized certain faces, since they were masked that day. postponement of the scheduled hearing".
Drawing such conclusions, the HRA points out, is arbitrary and reckless, "since Grujičić has been receiving treatment for almost three and a half years as a result of police torture and the violent interruption of hospital treatment that preceded it."
"The state prosecutor knew that he was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder caused by torture and that he was forcibly taken from hospital treatment for psychosis to be tortured in CB Podgorica. Nevertheless, she grossly neglected his sensitivity by exposing him to secondary victimization in the form of testimony in the presence of police Although the prosecutor arbitrarily concluded that Grujičić suddenly concluded that he could recognize someone, it is true that two years ago, in a statement given before the same prosecutor, he stated that he could recognize the two people who tortured, which she should have made possible by organizing the act of identification in a way that would not further endanger him - in a separate room for identification, but this was not done. In this case, unfortunately, the coordinated action of the Minister of the Interior and the state prosecutor in the direction of removing all responsibility is recognized from a member of the criminal police unit that was in charge of Grujičić on the day he was tortured".
HRA states that in in relation to the previous decision rejecting the application, Senior State Prosecutor Tomković demanded that the facts of this case be fully established, that Grujicic be heard again in the presence of the suspects Miloš Vučinić, Dalibor Ljekočević, Bojan Vujačić, Nemanja Vujošević, Miodrag Jovović and Ivan Peruničić in order to determined whether and in what way they tortured him, and then make a fair and legal decision, which was evidently not done this time either.
Background of the torture case
"In an obvious effort to "solve" the case of placing explosives at the "Grand" bar and the house of security service officer Duško Golubović on the basis of false statements, officers of the Criminal Police of CB Podgorica abused Marko Boljević, a potential witness, Jovan Grujičić and Benjamin Mugoša as "desirable" Grujičić was accused and acquitted due to lack of evidence, while Mugoša was never charged because it turned out that he was in prison at the time the explosives were planted, as he claimed during the first hearing at the state prosecutor's office when he reported torture ", according to HRA.
Current trials
The HRA reminds that in the meantime, five police officers have been charged for torturing Marko Boljević and Benjamin Mugoša, of whom Inspector Dalibor Ljekočević is accused of torturing both Boljević and Mugoša, and is also being prosecuted for drug trafficking. Prosecutor Knežević, HRA points out, dismissed the criminal complaint against him for extorting testimony from Grujičić without a specific explanation.
Responsibility of bosses
According to the HRA, Knežević dismissed the complaint against the leaders of the police action, Srđan Korać and Miloš Vučinić, "who had to know what their subordinates were doing in the official premises, as part of the police operation they were managing". This, they add, contradicts the requirements of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture that superior police officers bear responsibility for hierarchical management.
Fate of the exemption request
"To this day, it has not been clarified how it was possible for the state prosecutor to issue a decision rejecting the application if a request for exemption was filed against her? Jovan Grujičić's lawyer, Damir Lekić, sent a request for exemption by e-mail on June 9, 2023 to three the addresses of the state prosecutors in the ODT Podgorica - the general email of the prosecution, the email of the manager and the email of the acting prosecutor. The moment when the prosecutor Knežević found out that a request for her disqualification had been submitted, based on Article 42 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, she was obliged to suspend work on the case. except for urgent actions, until the head of the Basic State Prosecutor's Office in Podgorica, Duško Milanović, decides on the submitted request," HRA points out.
This request of the lawyer, they add, was ignored, so Knežević continued to act illegally in the case by making a decision to reject the application contrary to the legal provisions that forbid it.
Miloš Vučinić, the former head of the Security Department of the Criminal Police in CB Podgorica, and the current head of the regional center "South", Srđan Korać, head of the Criminal Police Station for the Suppression of Blood Offenses and Domestic Violence, are on the list of suspects in the criminal report for the torture of Grujičić, as well as inspectors Vukašin Leković, Dalibor Ljekočević, Bojan Vujačić, Nemanja Vujošević, Radoman Vujičić, Miodrag Jovović, Ivan Peruničić and Ljubisav Striković. In relation to all of them, there is written documentation about the organization of bringing Grujičić from the Special Psychiatric Hospital in Dobrota to the CB Podgorica for questioning and their participation in his questioning.
Bonus video:
