”They beat him, but he said that he was hit in the head by a log while he was cutting wood,” Sarajevo lawyer Senad Kreho describes the actions of the police in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) when arresting his client.
Not wanting to reveal his identity, nor details about the time and place of arrest, Kreho told Radio Free Europe that the victim of police abuse was a man from Banja Luka.
“They beat him up. I offered to file a report, but people are afraid because they should ‘lie’ in custody,” emphasizes the Sarajevo lawyer, who did not want to give more details about the case, but only said that in the meantime, his client was deported from BiH to Montenegro where he is suspected of murder.
Namely, in the last ten years, Kreho has represented about 20 people who confirmed to him that the police beat them during detention.
Testimony from the penitentiary in Sarajevo
One of the examples of abuse refers to the testimony of a person detained in the Sarajevo Penitentiary. She claimed that during the arrest at the end of July 2021 in Sarajevo, she “received several blows to different parts of her body from two policemen”.
Mostly suspended sentences
From January 2019 to June 30th, 2021, 109 criminal charges against 176 police officers were submitted to the prosecutor’s office in BiH, according to data from the Committee of the Council of Europe. Indictments were filed in 16 cases. One of them was brought against two policemen in Mostar in October 2021, after which the trial began.
According to the data of the Commission of the Council of Europe, in 13 cases it was found that the policemen were guilty, and it is about 21 policemen. All the imposed sentences were suspended, with a duration of five to 11 months in prison. This means that police officers do not have to serve a prison sentence unless they commit a new crime.
Complaints to Ombudsman
Complaints about the actions of police officers can also be submitted to the Institution of Ombudsman for Human Rights of BiH. Last year, they received 77 complaints, mostly related to health care right, accommodation conditions, and treatment in prisons, Slobodna Evropareports.
E.Dz.
