Basic court: There is no reasonable doubt that VR sexually harassed the girl, released to defend herself from freedom

The Basic Court in Podgorica announced today that there is no reasonable doubt that VR sexually harassed a 12-year-old girl, and that he was released to defend himself.

The announcement states that the investigating judge of the Basic Court in Podgorica rejected the proposal of the Basic State Prosecutor's Office to order detention against the VR, and that for now there is no reasonable doubt that the VR committed the criminal offense of sexual harassment.

"On the video on which the prosecution bases its reasonable suspicion, there is no evidence of any behavior of the suspect that is of a sexual nature and that causes fear or creates a hostile, humiliating, intimidating, degrading or offensive environment for any person who is on the bus in question at a critical time. The proposal of the ODT in Podgorica to order the suspect VR to be detained for the criminal offense of sexual harassment, to the detriment of a 12-year-old girl, in public transport in Podgorica, was rejected now, as the investigating judge finds, there is no reasonable doubt that he committed the above-mentioned criminal act," the announcement states.

The Basic Court added that the suspect denies the criminal offense charged against him, "claiming that he was in front of this girl on the bus the whole time and certainly did not approach her and stand behind her, nor did he put his lower body against her lower body , nor did he move that part of his body left-right".

"From the video recorded in the case file and on which the state prosecutor's office bases its reasonable suspicion, it cannot be concluded that the suspect committed any sexual harassment against any of the two women who are seen opposite him at the beginning of the video Apart from the commotion inside the bus, which occurred spontaneously when new passengers entered the already full bus, the video does not show any form of unwanted verbal, non-verbal or physical behavior of the suspect, which is sexual nature and which aims to violate the dignity of a person or group of persons, i.e. which achieves such an effect," the announcement reads.

The Basic Court said that there is also no evidence of any behavior of the suspect that is of a sexual nature and that causes fear or creates a hostile, humiliating, intimidating, degrading or offensive environment.

"You can clearly see in this video that the female face that was facing the direction of the bus' movement reacted after being accidentally touched on the left side of the body by the newly arrived female face, when she directed her gaze in the direction of the suspect. A similar reaction was and after it was touched due to the crowd while it was focused on the mobile phone. Therefore, since there is no reasonable suspicion that the suspect has committed a criminal offense, this lacks the substantive legal requirement for detention which is why the proposal was rejected as unfounded," said the Basic Court in Podgorica.