Razić: Another blow from the European Court should make the domestic judicial and all other institutions aware and compel...

Another "packa" of the international court should make the domestic judicial and all other institutions aware and make the usual blanket platitudes "state of law" and "rule of law" finally start and apply in practice for some future cases that are already announced.

That's what lawyer Andrijana Razić, who was the attorney for the former official of the Movement for Change (PzP) Nikola Bajčetić in the dispute with the state of Montenegro before the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, said for "Vijesti".

Bajčetić sued the state for the inhuman and humiliating treatment of the members of the Special Police Unit on October 17, 2015, i.e. the beating, during the protest of the former Democratic Front (DF), as well as the lack of an effective investigation. The court proposed to the parties in the proceedings to resolve the case through amicable settlement, so the Government of Montenegro will pay Bajčetić 4.500 euros in the next three months as compensation for non-material damages.

"It should be emphasized that neither Bajčetić nor I, as his representative, have any desire or need to 'rejoice' over yet another unequivocal confirmation that our country is still far from respecting and applying the procedural and material convention standards in the procedures of torture and ill-treatment by the police officials, and the implementation of a quality investigation in that sense", said Razić.

She said that they were satisfied that the representative of the state before the court in Strasbourg acted responsibly, conscientiously and in accordance with the best interests of the state in this particular case, so he agreed to the conclusion of the settlement and "thus saving the state from further and already incurred costs, which, of course, , and job description and legal obligation".

"Of course, the monetary amount of 4.500 euros as compensation for material and non-material damage and the costs of the procedure cannot fully compensate Bajčetić for the violation of an absolutely protected human right, but it represents a certain type of moral satisfaction in the sense of recognition by the state and taking responsibility for the violation committed and caused damage," Razić said.

At the end of March 2021, the Constitutional Court issued a decision in this case obliging the Government to ensure that the Basic State Prosecutor's Office (ODT) in Podgorica urgently investigates the torture and abuse of Bajčetić.

In the decision of the Constitutional Court, it is written that the ODT did not carry out their orders from September 30, 2020, which accepted Bajčetić's appeal against the inaction of the prosecutors.

The beating of Bajčetić is just one in a series of cases related to the 2015 DF protests in which no effective investigation was conducted.

The European Court of Human Rights found that the competent state authorities, primarily the prosecutor's office and the police, did not conduct an efficient and effective investigation in order to discover and adequately punish the perpetrators of the abuse of Branimir Vukčević and Momčilo Baranin from Podgorica in Zlatarska Street in Podgorica. That court made a decision to pay them 7.500 euros in compensation for the violation of Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, i.e. the prohibition of torture, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, in the name of just satisfaction.

In the case of the brutal beating of Milorad Mijo Martinović in the same year, only two members of the then Special Anti-Terrorist Unit of the Police Administration were prosecuted, who reported and confessed to the crime, as well as their commander for covering up all the perpetrators of the crime of torture.

At the time of these events, the head of the Police Directorate was Slavko Stojanović, while the Minister of Internal Affairs was Raško Konjević.