European Court: Montenegro Failed to Compensate Bus Crash Victims

A hearing at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France. Photo: EPA-EFE/RONALD WITTEK

The court said Montenegro violated the European Convention on Human Rights, which says that everyone is entitled to a fair and public hearing within a reasonable time by an independent and impartial tribunal.

"The court notes that the judgments and court-approved settlements in respect of the applicants remain unenforced to date. The [Montenegrin] government submitted that they doubted the credibility of the documentation submitted, but the court considers they have not put forward any fact or argument capable of persuading it to reach a different conclusion in the present case," the ruling said.

Twenty-five citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina sued after being injured in the bus accident in Montenegro in September 1994.

The bus was travelling from Nevesinje in Bosnia to the Montenegrin city of Niksic when it fell into a ravine near the eastern Bosnian town of Bileca. Eleven people were killed and more than 40 hurt in the accident, UPI news agency reported at the time.

At the time during the war, Montenegrin buses and other private bus lines transported civilians to and from Serb-held regions of Bosnia, and frequently carried many more passengers than the actual capacity of the vehicles, according to UPI.

The injured passengers were awarded compensation in civil proceedings against the Montenegrin state-owned bus company between 1996 and 2005.

But in February 1996, the bus company was transformed into a stock company, and in May 1997 the Podgorica Commercial Court opened insolvency proceedings and the company was dissolved in 2009, leaving the compensation unpaid.

In May 2010, the passengers' lawyer took the case to the...