CoE Report Urges Montenegro to Investigate Police Brutality

Montenegrin Special Police Unit training in camp in the capital, Podgorica. Photo: Government of Montenegro

In its report, the Committee called on Interior Minister Filip Adzic, head of the Police Directorate Nikola Terzic and regional police directors to actively promote a culture change within law enforcement agencies.

"Police officers should be encouraged to report all cases of violence by colleagues through clear reporting lines to a distinct authority outside of the police unit concerned. It is essential that effective investigations into allegations of ill-treatment are undertaken to demonstrate that criminal acts by the police will be punished. The current culture of police impunity must be ended," the report said.

"It's also important that procedures are in place to ensure that all complaints of ill-treatment by police officers are promptly and thoroughly investigated," it added.

Citing a European police agency EUROPOL report to the Montenegrin government from last May, news portal Libertas Press on March 23 published photos and SKY app transcripts of police special unit officers and members of the notorious Kavac drug gangs.

In the published photos, special unit police officers can be seen beating prisoners, putting guns in their mouths, suffocating them and torturing them with electricity.

According to civil society organisations, more than 70 cases of alleged police torture have been reported to the Montenegrin Police Directorate, the Ombudsperson and the State Prosecution since 2020.

But the Council of Europe Committee noted that most of the cases were not investigated by authorities, despite calls to do so from human rights organisations.

"The allegations included slaps, punches, the grabbing and...