The Supreme State Prosecutor's Office has taken over two war crimes cases from the Special State Prosecutor's Office - "Morinj" and "Kaluđerski laz", and during the analysis and review of the available evidence and possibly some new evidence, it will consider whether there is a legal possibility for any new proceedings in these finally concluded cases,
At the beginning of last year, the Special State Prosecutor's Office adopted a Plan of Action regarding already concluded war crimes proceedings, based on which the cases "Morinj", "Bukovica", "Kaluđerski laz" and "Deportation" were re-formed, with the aim of analyzing previously finalised cases.
However, the chief special prosecutor Vladimir Novović On September 24, 2025, the Supreme State Prosecutor sent an act to the Supreme State Prosecutor requesting that two of the four reopened cases be entrusted to the prosecutors of the Supreme State Prosecutor's Office, with the aim of efficiently continuing the proceedings and fulfilling the obligations under the War Crimes Investigation Strategy and the accompanying Action Plan.
By a decision of October 20, 2025, the Supreme State Prosecutor's Office took over the taking of certain actions in the "Morinj" case, and four days later they took over the "Kaluđerski laz" case from the Special State Prosecutor's Office.
These four cases have been the subject of years of investigations and later court proceedings, and only the crime in the "Morinj" camp was partially concluded with a final conviction, while the accused in all other cases were acquitted...
Special investigation teams have been formed in newly formed cases, and prosecutors have undertaken to obtain new evidence as well as search the databases of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals.
The War Crimes Investigation Strategy was adopted in September last year, and was developed with the support of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), for the period until 2027.
During the presentation of the Strategy, the Supreme State Prosecutor Milorad Marković He said that the necessity of facing the past, establishing and strengthening the principles of the rule of law, imposes on the State Prosecutor's Office the obligation to improve its handling and intensify the investigation of war crimes cases.
One of the final benchmarks in Chapter 23 concerns a country's handling of war crimes.
LESS THAN A THIRD OF THE DEFENDANTS HAVE BEEN FINALLY CONVICTED
Back in 2015, the Prosecutor's Office adopted the first Strategy for War Crimes Investigation, which committed the Supreme State Prosecutor's Office to intensify the fight against impunity for war crimes through "more efficient investigation, prosecution, trial and punishment in accordance with international standards."
However, despite this, for a decade the prosecution did not use the mechanisms to shed light on war crimes committed in the wars of the 1990s.
Montenegro has so far convicted 11 people, or less than a third of the defendants, for war crimes committed in the territory of the former Yugoslavia during the wars of the 1990s.
At the “Morinj” collection center in Boka, at least 169 Croatian prisoners of war and civilians, who were brought from the Dubrovnik battlefield, survived torture and inhumane treatment by members of the JNA from October 1991 to August 1992.
Members of the JNA Ivo Gojnic, Spiro Lucic, Ivo Menzalin i Boro Gligić were sentenced in 2012 to a total of 12 years in prison for war crimes in the Morinj camp, while Mlađen Govedarica and Zlatko Tarle acquitted of charges.
Kaluđerski laz - a village near Rožaje, not far from the border with Kosovo, was a place of refuge for tens of thousands of Albanians who sought protection in Montenegro during the Kosovo war in 1999. The culmination of the violence against Albanian refugees from Kosovo occurred on 18 April 1999. At that time, members of the JNA are believed to have killed six and wounded five refugees. In just over a month, 22 people of Albanian nationality were killed in the area, all of whom were civilians, including the elderly, women and children.
The initiation of the trial against the suspects for this crime was very slow, like all other war crimes trials in Montenegro. After a five-year trial in the High Court in Bijelo Polje in 2013, all the accused - Lieutenant Colonel Predrag Strugar, as well as former soldiers Momčilo Barjaktarović, Petar Labudović, Aco Knežević, Branislav Radić, Miro Bojović, Vladimir Đurašković and Boro Novaković, were finally acquitted of the charges.
In May 1992, Montenegrin police deported Bosnian refugees and handed them over to the Army of Republika Srpska, then under the leadership of Radovan KaradžićThe majority of them were liquidated, while 12 refugees managed to survive torture in concentration camps. Among them were refugees of Serbian nationality, who were returned to be mobilized.
The largest number of arrested refugees were brought to the Herceg Novi Security Center, which served as a collection center, from where they were transported in an organized manner, by buses, on May 25th to the Foča KPD concentration camp, and on May 27th to an undetermined location in eastern BiH.
Bukovica, near Pljevlja on the border with Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia, is known as the only territory in Montenegro where ethnic cleansing was carried out in the 90s.
According to available information, at the beginning of 1992, 24 villages were displaced, and from 1992 to 1995, six civilians were killed. 11 people were abducted and taken to prison in Čajniče, and two committed suicide as a result of the torture, while an additional 70 civilians were subjected to physical torture, including extreme forms of humiliation and rape.
In the villages of Bukovica, at least eight houses and a village mosque were set on fire, and around 125 families with 330 members were displaced...
The investigation into that crime was opened in 2007, and included seven former members of the reserve forces of the police and the Yugoslav Army.
The indictment was filed in March 2010 against Radmila Đuković, Radiša Đuković, Slobodan Cvetković, Milorad Brković, Đorđe Gogić, Slaviša Cvrkota and Radoman Šubarić, but they were all acquitted in 2011 by a verdict of the Bijelo Polje High Court.
During the court proceedings in Montenegro, no responsibility was established at all for co-perpetration or aiding or abetting or organizing criminal associations or command responsibility, while those responsible were held accountable both in The Hague and before courts in the region.
SDT formed 10 cases last year
The Special State Prosecutor's Office did not receive any reports of war crimes during 2025, but 10 cases were opened last year, which are currently being processed.
During 2025, the SDT did not initiate a new investigation for war crimes, and from an earlier period, an investigation against former GST Milivoje Katnić remained in progress, which was opened in June 2024 due to suspicion that in the territory of Croatia, the municipality of Konavli, Cavtat, as a JNA officer, acting contrary to the provisions of the Fourth Geneva Convention on the Protection of Civilians, he "inhumanly treated individual civilians of Croatian nationality, by attacking, torturing, physically harming them, and insulting human dignity and committing violence against mental well-being."
At the "Morinj" collection center in Boka, at least 169 Croatian prisoners of war and civilians, who were brought from the Dubrovnik battlefield, survived torture and inhumane treatment...
In October last year, the High Court in Podgorica confirmed the indictment against Nikšić police officer Zoran Gašović, accusing him of committing a war crime in May 1992 in Hadžići.
The Special State Prosecutor's Office was visited in May and November by the Deputy Prosecutor of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals, Kevin Hughes, and his associates.
During the meetings, the proactive approach and activities undertaken by the SDT in this area were praised, and steps towards strengthening inter-institutional cooperation were agreed upon.
The proactive approach of the Special State Prosecutor's Office was also recognized in the European Commission's 2025 Progress Report on Montenegro, published in November 2025, which highlighted that Montenegro, thanks to the improved approach of the prosecutorial authorities, continues to make good progress in processing war crimes and is building a credible and sustainable track record in the field of investigation, prosecution and adjudication of war crimes cases, including high-level cases, in accordance with international law and standards.
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