In his letter Vujacic claims that he has been systematically tortured by the Montenegrin Police. The goal of the torture was to force him to confess the crime he hasn't committed. He also claims that the judicial institutions in Podgorica have been informed about the torture, but haven't done anything. Instead of reacting to the illegal actions in the investigation, they have been postponing the conclusion of the trial.
Vujacic was arrested on October 1, 1999. His nightmare started on the same day. During the following eight-nine days, as he told us in the investigative prison in Spuz, he was exposed to "bestial torture". He claims that Montenegrin policemen hang him upside down by his feet under some of bridges in Kolasin and beat him until he fainted. "They tied my testes with rusty wire and pulled and hit them until I fainted. I do not know how many times I fainted. They would stop hitting me only when I started spitting blood and urinating," claims Vujacic and adds that all of this has been recorded in his medical record in the Spuz prison.
Goran Rodic, Vujacic's publicly appointed defense attorney, also noticed consequences of the torture when Vujacic was finally taken to see investigative judge Zoran Zivkovic. Vujacic's fingers were broken so that he almost couldn't sign his statement given to the investigative judge. The defense attorney insisted that the state in which the defendant was in be recorded in the investigation record, but Zivkovic replied that "[he is] not a physician". On the other hand, no one has so far responded to the written request of the defense counsel to provide access to the medical documentation about the medical examination conducted in the investigative prison.
In the investigation warrant, the investigative judge stated that Vujacic had been arrested on October 5, 1999 and ordered that he be held in custody for thirty days. Although Vujacic had been arrested by the Police in Podgorica on October 1, the investigative judge ignored that. Zivkovic made another mistake: he "bridged" the legal limitation which specifies that the Police can legally keep suspects in custody for at most three days. Therefore, one can suspect that something is "rotten" in Montenegrin judiciary.
According to the investigation warrant, on October 9, 1999 Vujacic was charged with another crime. Namely, the suspect was accused of trying to kill Dragoljub Vlaovic a year before(?), on November 15, 1998, at about midnight in front of café "Beli".
Vujacic's defense counsel appealed this warrant. According to the investigation record, the new charges are based on the investigation record, rather than material evidence or witness testimony... The investigative judge did not mention any evidence for new charges and the defense counsel concluded that the investigation record "cannot be a legal and correct basis for an investigation warrant since that would be a significant violation of the legal rules governing the investigation conduct." "Moreover," said Rodic, "the investigative judge during the questioning of the suspect, in violation of article 218 of the Criminal Law, did not explain the charges to the suspect." Therefore he concluded: "It is logical to assume that there is no evidence against the suspect, since otherwise the laws would have been respected."
In spite of everything, the Supreme Court rejected the appeal of the defense and following a suggestion of the investigative magistrate, on December 3, 1999 it ordered that Vujacic be kept in custody for another two months, until February 5, 2000. The investigative magistrate justified his request by saying that he hadn't completed his investigation because he needed to question "several witnesses"!?
It is surprising that the Supreme Court of Montenegro accepted such a request since according to the trial record the last witness was questioned on November 24, 1999, before the request for the extension of the custody.
Vujacic was indicted on January 25, 2000 and the following day he received a document stating that the investigation against him for attempted murder of Vlaovic had been stopped. The higher prosecutor had given up since he had no evidence that Vujacic had committed the crime. But in spite of identical results in both cases, the results were not the same. Namely, suddenly a key witness appeared out of nowhere. Allegedly nineteen-year-old Stojan Kilibarda witnessed the whole incident. According to the Police report about the identification procedure, dated October 5, 1999, that young man was near the spot where the shooting took place with his girlfriend and even exchanged a few words with the person who carried out the murder attempt.
It seems that such an important evidence was for no reason neglected since the investigative magistrate, as can be seen from the investigation warrant, was not aware of this witness! That is even more surprising because the first Kilibarda's statement, according to the mentioned Police record, is the one and only piece of evidence connecting Vujacic to the crime, says Rodic. It is also interesting that the girlfriend mentioned by Kilibarda in the Police record has disappeared, although it would make sense to invite her to give a statement.
The investigative magistrate questioned the key witness after somewhat more than a month, although, according to the Police record, he was immediately available. Therefore, the overall impression is that the goal of the investigation was to hide some things and distort others.
In his first statement, according to the Police record, Kilibarda fairly freely described what had happened at the crossroads and then, allegedly, identified Vujacic as the culprit. That Police record, although contradictory and insufficiently precise, states that Vujacic was identified as a culprit since the witness was shown four persons "in different poses": the suspect and three policemen. That is, to say the least, strange, since the law specifies that at least five persons besides the suspects should be used and that all of them should be similar in appearance to the person that should be identified, of same height, build, hair color and dressed in similar clothes, "so that the witness really has to carry out the identification." The law insist on that since "identification can be very important, sometimes key, evidence".
Kilibarda denied the claims made in the Police record in front of the investigative magistrate. "It was dark and I could not really see the face of the person, especially since he had a hood and hid his face with his hands. When I was invited to the Police Station to carry out the identification, I was shown only one person." Kilibarda also stated that during the identification he had not been sure that Vujacic had been the person who had shot at the crossroads in Podgorica. But neither the investigative magistrate nor the prosecutor reacted to Kilibarda's statement!
On June 19, at the main hearing in the High Court in Podgorica, in front of the panel of judges chaired by judge Milorad Gogic, Kilibarda confirmed his statement given to the investigative magistrate, adding that the Police demanded from him "to say that Dragan Vujacic shot at Krstovic" and that "Krstovic offered him $5,000 to confirm that in his testimony." One by one, Kilibarda struck down all the "evidence" that was supposed to implicate Vujacic so that in the end nothing was left of the prosecutor's case.
Why did Radonjic, a senior prosecutor, ignore this testimony? To the objections of the defense counsel that severe violations of the Criminal Law had occurred during the investigation, Radonjic replied that Police records and records made by the investigative magistrate are beyond doubt(!?). Finally, in spite of facts, he concluded that the witness had merely "denied two public documents, the identification record and the investigative magistrate records, put together based on his statements."
Besides that, the prosecutor recalled the existence of a few more witnesses, Kilibarda's girlfriend, as well as a woman who sold corn on the street on the day of the attempted murder. Consequently he requested that Vujacic remain in custody.
Therefore, the court rejected the request of attorney Rodic that Vujacic be released from custody since the plaintiff Krstovic hadn't appeared at any of the trial hearings, although he had been issued three summons. The panel however, decided to continue the hearing and ordered that Krstovic be brought to the hearing by force.
However, at the next hearing, on September 14, the last one so far, the farce reached its culmination. Krstovic yet again failed to appear at the hearing. The Police justification was that Krstovic had been taken into custody on June 30(?). The Police failed to bring the other two witnesses, the "sought" girlfriend and the corn seller. Prosecutor Radonjic also failed to show up, so that judge Gogic concluded that the prosecutor was absent without a justification. Consequently, the hearing was adjourned for the sixth time.
It seems that in Montenegro "justice" is still sought through torture and beatings. This process finds a good collaborator in the frequent avoidance of the application of legal procedure. "Old hag, tell us if you're a witch?" Can such an inquisitorial procedure still be the principle on which the investigation in criminal cases is based in Montenegro?