Minister of Internal Affairs Filip Adžić brazenly accused myself and the Human Rights Action organisation  “of destroying public institutions in order to get specific grants”, because of our repeated demands for him to suspend police officers accused of torture from active service. In response to the above accusation, presented last night in Petar Komnenić’s show “Načisto”, on TV Vijesti, I would like to point out the following:

1. The Minister does not have the right to allow police inspectors accused of the serious criminal offence of extorting testimony by using grave violence to continue exercising their police powers for more than 8 months. He was personally obliged to suspend them as soon as he was informed that they were indicted. By his persistently unlawful behaviour, the Minister seriously compromised himself, as well as the police, the Government and the political party URA, which are all supposedly advocating for the rule of law.

2. The fact that he enabled those accused of torture to “solve a monstrous murder” only calls into question the legality of “solving” it. This is not something that should be praised; it should rather be investigated.

3. The Minister’s repeated claims that there are not enough inspectors “whom we believe are absolutely clean” and that “those who exceed their powers are less dangerous than those involved in criminal structures” are extremely worrying. Montenegro has 1,138 police inspectors (data from July 2021). If among them there are not even four that the Minister does not suspect, to replace the accused, then something is either wrong with the Minister, or the country should declare a state of emergency. Second, after the photographs and correspondence that were published by Libertas, no one can be certain that inspectors who engage in torture are not also connected to organised crime. The Minister is suggesting that there are more citizens who would forgive police officers for beating them and forcing them to confess to things they did not do, than those who would forgive them for trafficking drugs. Instead of treating all “dirty” police officers equally, in accordance with the law, the Minister has forgiven some of them in advance, thereby disqualifying himself from discharging a public office in a state governed by the rule of law.

4. No grant obliges either me or the Human Rights Action to put pressure on ministers to act in a lawful manner. Putting pressure on the government can only lead one to risk and an uncomfortable position, which is why it does not happen frequently enough in Montenegrin society. However, such pressure is clearly necessary for the protection of victims of human rights violations and the rule of law. Many of us perceive it as our obligation, which is why we have the right to international protection from those who try to intimidate us, as Minister Adžić is doing now.

5. Speaking of grants, in addition to the salary paid by the Montenegrin citizens, the Minister should be bound also by the United States grant for investigating police misconduct, which he received in August 2022. That donation was not given so that the Minister could publicly protect people accused of torture.

6. Finally, we should ask ourselves what the real reason is for Minister Adžić not dismissing the indicted police inspectors. Is he perhaps scared and blackmailed by them and those who have organised systematic torture in the police? Who is really exercising power over a minister in the Government of Montenegro?

Tea Gorjanc Prelević,

Executive Director of the NGO Human Rights Action