The court in Rožaje fined a man from OH with a fine of 150 euros, because he posted nude photos of his ex-unmarried wife on Facebook with a fake profile.
Previously, he and his father HH were fined 250 euros each, and banned from harassment and stalking for three months, due to physical violence against his ex-wife and daughter-in-law.
Organizations for women's rights consider such a sentence too light, and the family of the injured party is also disappointed with the court's decision, additionally because the perpetrator will end up paying only two-thirds of the 150 euro fine. "Out of that 150 euros, 25 was refused to him, because he was detained, and if he pays within 15 days of the passing of the final verdict, of the remaining 125 euros, he will only pay two-thirds. So how can such acts not continue to happen", said the sister of the SA victim to "Vijesta".
She assessed that the courts encourage others to do the same with such practice.
"Here, I will be the first to create a profile and damage the reputation of my ex-son-in-law with photo montages. I will admit in court that I did it and I will pay two-thirds of the fine," she said bitterly.
The victim reported her ex-husband in mid-December, after her sister called and told her that there was a Facebook profile with her name, from which someone was sending nudity photos to their family. In the report, she stated that she suspected her ex-husband, that he had done this before, and that he had sent questionable messages to his and her relatives from fake profiles. In another report, a few days later, she stated that her ex-husband told her that he showed her naked photos to "a black man who was staying at the Aldi Hotel", where OH was employed as a waiter.
She accused him of writing to her relatives for two years using a fake profile in her name and asking them to have sex.
OH confessed to the crime he was charged with in court.
The victim and her ex-husband lived in a cohabitation for three years and have two children.
She reported her ex-husband for the first time in November last year. Then, in her statement to the police, she said that the problems in the marriage started already after the birth of the first child, and that they became even more serious after she agreed to give her husband a second chance.
She claims that her ex-father-in-law and her husband's sister started harassing her after that, and that the situation worsened when she gave birth to her second child a year ago.
The victim then goes to her parents, and her ex-husband seeks professional help from the Center for Social Work in Rožaje. After joint counseling, she returned to her husband, who, as she states in her report to the police, promised that no one would interfere in their marriage again. Just four days later, OH and his father physically assaulted his ex-wife and daughter-in-law, punching her on the head and body. The victim then filed a complaint against both of them. A month later, she contacted the Rožaj police because her unmarried ex-husband was sharing her naked photos on Facebook.
Ljiljana Raičević from the Safe Women's House says that the sentences imposed on OH and his father are too light.
"They tell the other women who are victims of violence that the state does not protect them, and they send a clear message to the abusers - strike," she told "Vijesti". He also considers a three-month restraining order a light punishment.
"It is the mildest punishment, which the perpetrators often do not respect, because the injured party, if the perpetrator violates it, should constantly report him. "A terrified woman who is a victim of violence, who is still under pressure to withdraw the lawsuit, or not to appeal the verdict, has the consequence that the violence will surely happen again," she said.
Online sexual exploitation or revenge pornography involves posting sexually explicit photos or videos without the consent of the individual appearing in the content.
The perpetrator is often an ex-partner who obtained photos or videos from a previous relationship with the victim and wants to publicly embarrass and humiliate the victim in order to end the relationship.
In the last few years, more such cases have been recorded in the EU and the United States, and 90 percent of the victims are women. Research also shows that the number of cases is increasing, and more suicides of victims of revenge pornography have been recorded.
In Britain and France, up to two years in prison and 60.000 euros
Violence against women and girls on the Internet is not yet fully legally regulated at the EU level, and only in a few countries is the so-called "revenge pornography" a criminal offense, according to a document published in 2017 by the European Institute for Gender Equality.
Thus, for sharing private photos or videos of sexual content without the consent of the person on them, perpetrators in the United Kingdom have been facing a prison sentence of up to two years since 2015.
In 2016, a law was passed in France that foresees the same prison sentence, but also a fine in the amount of 60.000 euros.
39 reports of misuse of profiles on social networks were reported in 2018, according to the recent report of the Ministry of Public Administration on incident situations on the Internet. From that department, they add that a growing trend has been recorded, and that five years ago there were 10 registered, that is, four times less such cases.
Supreme Court: Judges and prosecutors decide
The office of the president of the Supreme Court, Vesna Medenica, said that they could not comment on the decisions of colleagues from Rožaj, because "the judge judges and decides independently and independently".
They also add that, in assessing whether a misdemeanor has been committed in a case or whether it is a criminal offense, in practice "certain challenges may arise regarding the demarcation of misdemeanor from criminal liability" and that the competent state prosecutor decides on this.
When asked if it is common for similar acts to be punished as misdemeanors, they explain that the amount of the punishment is determined by taking into account a number of circumstances.
"The court imposes on the perpetrator of a misdemeanor or a criminal offense a sentence that, in the court's opinion, will best achieve the purpose of applying a misdemeanor or criminal sanction," said the Cabinet of the Supreme Court.
They also add that "the Supreme Court of Montenegro pays significant attention to the standardization of criminal policy, especially in the spirit of the fight against violence against women."
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