Police arrest four minors suspected of beating a boy in Podgorica

Police in Podgorica have arrested four 15-year-old minors suspected of attacking a 14-year-old boy in the Ibričevina neighborhood last Thursday and causing him serious bodily injuries.

As "Vijesti" previously wrote, the boy was diagnosed with a fracture of the cheekbone, nose... at the Institute for Children's Diseases of the Clinical Center of Montenegro.

"On June 11, at around 11:00 p.m., employees of the Children's Hospital reported to the Podgorica Security Department that a 14-year-old minor, accompanied by his parents, had come to seek medical attention with injuries suspected to have been caused by peer violence. Police officers interviewed the injured minor, who stated that on June 11, at around 7:30 p.m., in the Ibričevina neighborhood in Podgorica, he was physically attacked by several unknown persons while he was in the company of four friends," the police statement said. It added that the state prosecutor at the Basic State Prosecutor's Office in Podgorica was immediately informed of the incident, who qualified the act as a criminal offense of violent behavior in conjunction with the criminal offense of serious bodily injury, and ordered further measures and actions to be taken to identify and find the unknown perpetrators of the crime.

Police said that after collecting information from several people, they identified four juvenile suspects who were arrested.

"It is suspected that on June 11, in the Ibričevina neighborhood in Podgorica, these individuals physically attacked the injured party, during which one of the suspects kicked him in the head, causing the injured party to fall to the asphalt. After that, the other suspects approached him and kicked him several times in the head and body while he was lying on the asphalt, causing him to suffer serious bodily injuries. The suspects will be brought before the state prosecutor today, with a criminal complaint, for further proceedings," the police statement concluded.

The family of the beaten 14-year-old said last weekend that it was a "brutal and unprovoked attack", stating that the boy "did not cause any conflict, had no previous contact with the attackers or knew them".

"Despite this, he was attacked on the street for no reason and suffered severe and serious injuries," claims the family, whose identity is known to the editorial staff.

They stated that after the attack, the fourteen-year-old was urgently transported to the Clinical Center, "where he was diagnosed with serious physical injuries."

They appealed to the public "not to turn a blind eye to peer violence and to support the fight against such events, so that no other family faces what our family is going through today," and said they expect the competent authorities to shed light on all the circumstances of this brutal attack and that those responsible be brought to justice in accordance with the law.