Minister of the Interior Danilo Šaranović said that the state must guarantee the protection of human rights, and that raising the police culture and reaching the minimum level of tolerance for abuse by police officers "are high on the Government's agenda". He emphasized that individual cases still occur, but that he believes that the situation in this area will improve in accordance with the recommendations given to Montenegro in the report of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT).
Šaranović used the opening address at the round table, organized by the NGO Akcija za ljuska prava (HRA) and the CPT, to mention the case surrounding his security chief, who he said "made a mistake during earlier police work".
"It is about a police officer who made a mistake in his respectable police career. More specifically, during a complex police operation, a few years ago, the officer exceeded his authority in dealing with one person. Because of this excess, unlike numerous known cases police torture with serious consequences in the past, in which in most cases the abolition and protection of police officers was resorted to, this was not the case with this officer," said Šaranović.
He said that "that official admitted his mistake, apologized, and that after assuming the position of security coordinator of the Minister of Internal Affairs, he emphasized and problematized that event"...
The Minister of Internal Affairs emphasized that in addition to prevention, "strengthening of professionalism and strengthening of integrity" is also necessary, and that torture of a person or inhumane treatment can never be justified...
The executive director of the NGO Action for Human Rights, Tea Gorjanc Prelevic, said that, unlike the Minister of the Interior, she believes that Montenegro is not on an upward trajectory, and that "there has been progress, but not substantial".
She reminded that since 2004, there have been five visits by the CPT to Montenegro, and that the Committee has continuously given clear recommendations for years, and presented worrying cases of abuse in its reports...
"The state was required to face the fact that abuse in the police is a method of action, that there is a culture of abuse in the criminal police and that it must be combated by very concrete prosecution of people for committing criminal offenses as well as in the chain of command, and it was also required that unequivocal messages come from the highest levels of government. And what have we experienced? We have experienced from the former Minister of the Interior Filip Adžić that he strongly justifies people, whom the prosecution accused of the most severe form of abuse - extorting evidence from the police with severe violence. We have experienced that the former minister in for a period of nine months, it refuses to suspend those people and publicly supports them, accusing the NGO of wanting to destroy the system with its criticism," stated Gorjanc Prelevic.
She mentioned that in March 2023, as she said, thanks to EUROPOL and Libertast, we could see photos of police torture of people with bags on their heads...
"Those photos were probably exchanged by members of the elite crime-fighting unit with OKG members, bragging about abusing people from the opposite clan. None of the charges have been filed in those cases, but they are all in the investigation phase. I emphasize, no charges have been filed yet, and the events are from 2020 and 2021, and four cases had already been reported," she stated, emphasizing that of the 24 cases recorded by the HRA, only two indictments were filed.
Gorjanc Prelevic also mentioned the case of abuse of Jovan Grujičić, deliberately mentioning his name, as she said, as a form of protection.
The executive director of HRA stated that since 2008, the recommendation of the CPT was that police officers in special operations should wear insignia, but that this summer, during the raid at the "Podgorica" hotel, it could be seen that this recommendation is still not being followed.
CPT President Alan Mitchell said that the Government's focus should be on "zero tolerance for torture and ill-treatment".
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