N10.T2 – SLOBODAN PEKOVIĆ (ĆURČIĆ) CONVICTED OF WAR CRIME AGAINST CIVILIAN POPULATION
HRA NEWSLETTER 10 – TOPIC 2
A special panel of the Podgorica High Court, presided over by Judge Nada Rabrenović, has sentenced Slobodan Peković to 20 years in prison for the war crime against the civilian population. This is the only ongoing war crimes case before domestic courts in Montenegro.
Peković, who previously went by the surname Ćurčić, was charged with killing two individuals and raping a Bosniak woman (protected witness A1) in Foča in 1992, while serving as a soldier in the Army of the Republic of Srpska (ARS).
The court determined that Peković, together with other ARS soldiers, during the attack on the village of Hum in Foča, took Emina Šabanović out of her house, beat her on the body with a shovel and dragged her by the hair. Afterwards, he took her to Mujo Šabanović’s house, where he killed both of them with shots from automatic weapons, and then set the house on fire along with their bodies.
He was also convicted of raping witness A1. Namely, after A1 was forcibly brought to Foča, to the “Partizan” sports hall, Peković took her out of there together with her minor child, witness A2, and several other women and children, and took them to an apartment opposite the police station, where A1 was raped.
As aggravating circumstances in sentencing, the court took into account Peković’s previous convictions in Germany for serious thefts and illegal trade, as well as his persistence and brutality in committing the criminal acts, and his cunning and craftiness.
After the first-instance verdict was announced, he was placed in custody, to which he was taken after the trial concluded. Until then, he defended himself while free, since his previous custody was lifted on October 21, 2024, because the first-instance verdict was not rendered within three years from the indictment.
Special Prosecutor Tanja Čolan-Deretić told journalists that the prosecution is satisfied with this decision, while lawyer Dalibor Tomović, the representative of the injured party A1, said that the court established undisputed facts.
“Considering all the circumstances of this case, I believe the sentence is proportionate to the gravity of the war crime. The acts of rape, which A1 described in detail before the court, were confirmed by the testimony of another protected witness, A2, who thoroughly described how she recognized the accused”, said Tomović.
The NGO Human Rights Action (HRA) announced that this is the first case in Montenegrin judiciary related to war sexual violence where the victim has the status of a protected witness.
“This verdict is a significant step forward in punishing war crimes in Montenegro and can encourage other victims to seek justice through judicial proceedings”, the HRA statement reads.
This NGO expects domestic courts to demonstrate the ability to apply international standards in war crimes cases. However, they criticized the court’s failure to decide on the property-related claim of the injured party, because pursuing this claim in civil proceedings would require her to reveal her identity and suffer retraumatization from the trial.
“I expect the state to ensure that property-related claims of such victims are necessarily decided within the criminal proceedings, so that victims are spared additional trauma. This verdict is important because it forces us to confront the facts about the involvement of Montenegrin citizens in mass war crimes, especially the rapes of women in Bosnia and Herzegovina. I call on anyone who knows anything about this to contact the state prosecutor’s office. All such crimes have permanently and painfully marked the lives of innocent people and their families, especially children”, emphasized Tea Gorjanc-Prelević, Executive Director of HRA.
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