The trial of the police inspectors who were accused of extorting statements from Marko Boljević with severe violence, continued today before the Basic Court in Podgorica. The trial was attended by the witness Srđan Korać, Head of the Crime Police station for the suppression of blood crimes and domestic violence, while the injured party was not present.
During the proceedings, the witness emphasized that he received the allegations of torture later, after the hearing before the inspectors and later before the prosecutor, and that Boljević cooperated perfectly well with them in the proceedings and that, therefore, the accusations of coercion against him have no basis. Since it was unclear to the prosecutor why the police officers wore balaclavas during the transportation of Boljević to Podgorica and then took them off at the station, Korać replied that the wearing of balaclavas is an assessment for each specific case and that the same applies depending on the severity of the criminal offense or depending on the person who is brought in for questioning, but that in any case, they have the legal right to wear them. He also emphasized that it is not natural to wear balaclavas on official premises. He also pointed out that it is very symptomatic that Boljević did not complain about torture at the time of the hearing with the prosecutor, but he did it later.
The witness said that he could not remember who exactly went to pick up the injured party, and he did not remember who participated in taking the statement, as well as who was the prosecutor in this case, that is, the prosecutors considering that there were two of them, but that everything was stated in the case files.
Answering the prosecutor’s questions, Korać pointed out that none of the defendants told him that force had been used and that he would certainly have been informed if there had been an overstepping of authority. He also pointed out that this would have been noticed by the other parties and employees, bearing in mind that the interrogation took place in the morning hours when the interrogation rooms were mostly full of people because, according to Boljević’s report, the torture lasted for hours. He also reminded me about the polygraph examination, that is, that it could not be held with a victim of violence because the victim needs to be calm at the moment of giving answers, and the examination needs to be on a voluntary basis.
When asked by the attorney of the injured party why the police officers from Tivat did not wear balaclavas, Korać replied that he saw no reason why they would wear them because, in the specific case, they only assisted in the part of transporting Boljević from Tivat to a certain location where the accused police inspectors took them.
We remind the public that on the basis of the testimony of the injured Marko Boljević presented before the prosecution and related to the actions of police officers from 25 May 2020, a case was formed, according to which five police officers were accused of extorting a statement with serious violence. On that occasion, Marko Boljević said that he was tortured by police officers with electric shockers, beaten with boxing gloves bats and that his family and girlfriend were threatened, all in order to force a statement accusing Jovan Grujičić and Benjamin Mugoša of planting explosives.
The continuation of the trial is scheduled for 6 September at 8:00 a.m.
The Civic Alliance will continue to actively monitor this and other trials for torture cases within the project “No Impunity for Violation of Human Rights in Montenegro”, with the support of the EU Delegation to Montenegro.