Last week NGO Human Rights Action (HRA) asked the Supreme State Prosecutor, Ivica Stanković, whether the State Prosecutor’s Office ever filed the announced request for judicial review to the Supreme Court against the final judgment in the case “Deportation of Refugees”. HRA sent 15 months ago (on 20 November 2013) a detailed and reasoned initiative for judicial review in this case to the former acting Supreme State Prosecutor, Mr Veselin Vukčević. After that, HRA sent several inquiries whether this initiative has been discussed and requested that the public be informed when such a request is submitted.

In the letter, HRA reminded of findings of several international bodies about the inadequate application of international law in the prosecution of war crimes cases, especially in the case of “Deportation” and “Bukovica”, in which it directly led to acquittals (Committee Against Torture, the UN Working Group on Enforced Disappearances, European Commission expert Maurizio Salustro, Amnesty International).

HRA requested from Mr Stanković to inform the public about the strategy of the Supreme State Prosecutor’s Office of Montenegro for coping with impunity in this, as well as all other known cases of war crimes – Bukovica, Kaluđerski laz, Štrpci, the siege of the wider area of Dubrovnik, in which the victims are indisputable, but for different reasons the responsibility of all those responsible for these victims has not established. Such strategy exists in the countries of the region.

The letter (in Montenegrin) is available here.

HRA team