Montenegro Upholds Morinj Detention Camp Abuse Convictions

In a landmark ruling, a Montenegrin court upheld the convictions of four former Yugoslav Army reservists jailed for abusing Croatian prisoners at the Morinj wartime detention camp.

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The Morinj detention camp. Photo: Beta.

The appeals court in Podgorica confirmed the prison sentences totalling 12 years on Wednesday in the first final guilty verdict for war crimes ever handed down by a Montenegrin court.

It confirmed that Ivo Menzalin will serve four years in prison, Spiro Lucic and Boro Gligic will serve three years, and Ivo Gojnic two years.

They were convicted of having abused Croatian soldiers in 1991 and 1992, after the Croatian detainees were captured on the battlefield near Dubrovnik and brought to the Morinj camp, close to the Montenegrin coastal town of Kotor.

The four men had appealed against the sentences that were handed down in July 2013, but their appeals were dismissed as unfounded.

The European Commission last year urged Montenegro to ensure that war crimes are properly prosecuted after what it called the “low” sentences handed down in the Morinj case.

“Montenegro needs to make efforts to tackle impunity,” the EC said in its annual progress report on the country last October.

Earlier this year, Montenegro was ordered to pay a total of 319,000 euro in compensation to 13 Croatian citizens who were held at the Morinj camp.

Another former reservist soldier, Zlatko Tarle, who was acquitted of the same war crimes charges as the other four men, has meanwhile been granted 60,000 euro in compensation for being unjustly deprived of his liberty.