HRA: Six years of impunity for police torture — court acquits five inspectors for the second time

Six years after Marko Boljević reported being mistreated at the Podgorica police station, and despite medical findings confirming injuries consistent with his description of torture, the Basic Court in Podgorica acquitted for the second time five police inspectors accused of extracting his statement through severe violence — Human Rights Action (HRA) announced.

According to HRA, the acquittal is particularly concerning because it came after the High Court in Podgorica had annulled the previous verdict and ordered that all evidence be assessed individually, in relation to each other and against the defendants’ defenses. “The reasoning shows that the court’s benevolent approach toward the defendants has not essentially changed — a critical approach toward their contradictory defenses was once again completely absent,” the organization stresses.

In the new verdict, the court based its conclusion that police torture was not proven on the same disputed assessments: it described the expert’s finding that the injuries could have occurred during police detention up to 72 hours earlier as an “insurmountable time vacuum” — although the finding confirms the victim’s statement; the court assumed the injuries could have come from another event, with no evidence that such an event occurred; and it accepted the statements of police officers connected to the defendants that they had noticed nothing, although the injuries were not on visible parts of the body.

HRA recalls that the forensic medicine expert and the Commission for Forensic Expertise of the University of Montenegro found that the injuries on Marko Boljević’s body match his description of the torture he endured — the result of at least 11 blows with fists, kicks, so-called “volleys” and sharp mechanical instruments. Three internationally renowned experts also examined Boljević and, in a separate report, concluded with a “high degree of certainty” that the injury traces match his description of the torture.

“According to their findings, the judge dismissed this report because the expertise had not been conducted at the order of a domestic court or prosecution,” HRA’s statement says.

HRA expects the High Court to annul the acquittal again and assess the evidence itself, in line with European standards. The organization warns that such an approach to prosecuting police torture not only deepens impunity and discourages victims from reporting mistreatment, but also calls into question the state’s ability to guarantee effective protection against torture — one of the key rule-of-law issues Montenegro must fulfill in the EU accession process.

Source: RTCG — https://rtcg.me/vijesti/drustvo/882942/hra-sest-godina-nekaznjivosti-za-policijsku-torturu-u-drzavi-koja-zeli-u-eu.html