Human Rights Action (HRA) assesses that today’s verdict of Basic Court in Podgorica, which imposed sentences of three months of prison for each of the three police officers convicted for torturing late Aleksandar Pejanovic – which is at legal minimum, tolerates torture committed by state officers.

Although the sentence prescribed for the criminal offense of torture committed by a state employee is from three months to three years of prison, the Basic Court in Podgorica sentenced the policemen at the legal minimum, therefore promoting impunity for torture, not respecting victim Pejanovic nor implementing the preventive function of criminal legislation.

In the report to the Committee Against Torture of the UN (CAT), HRA stated that, even when it comes to indictments and the court determines responsibility in cases of torture and ill-treatment, Montenegrin courts impose lenient sentences or, as by a rule, suspended sentences, and this had been confirmed by today’s verdict. In its conclusions related to Montenegro, the Committee Against Torture (CAT) therefore recommended that sentences for torture should be commensurate with the gravity of this crime.

HRA recalls that up to date the police have not identified or brought to justice direct perpetrators from the special police unit suspected of having committed the offense, nor the ones who ordered the members of the special unit to do so, to which the European Committee for Prevention of Torture (CPT) paid special attention in its report made after their visit to Montenegro, in which they expressed concern that the Public Prosecutor has not conducted an effective investigation in accordance with the European standards.

This brings into a question the commitment of the Government and the Public Prosecutor’s office to combat torture, since they did not submit the required information to CPT in the case of Pejanovic, while HRA requested from the Supreme State Prosecutor to initiate a procedure for determining the responsibility of the competent prosecutor due to his ineffective investigation in this case, which has not been done up to date.

HRA hopes that the public prosecutor will appeal to the High Court in respect of the length of imposed sentences, as well as that the prosecution and the court will accept recommendations of the international committees which members are experts competent for monitoring respect for human rights in Montenegro.