UN report: Detainees in Serbia complain about police brutality

Serbia’s organisations dealing with human rights presented the report on Tuesday which said the means used by the police included slapping, kicking, beatings with police clubs and threats with handguns.

Those means were used, according to the detainees, to force them to confess.

“We have received many complaints about police brutality. Mostly during arrests and hearings. The detainees say they have been coerced into signing confessions even to crimes which, they say, they haven’t committed,” Melzer’s report said.

In order to make any progress, he said, that state institutions should have a zero tolerance of any abuse.

He urged Serbia’s Prosecutor’s Office to play a more active role since the prosecutors often allow the policemen from the same precinct where their accused colleague worked to conduct the investigation.

Melzer added the ambience of impunity existed in Serbia.

“When that is the case, you have a situation in which police officers act in a forbidden way, knowing they will not suffer consequences,” Nikola Kovacevic, from the Belgrade Centre for Human Rights said.

Melzer also toured two social institutions for people with psychosocial disabilities and reported that besides the lack of staff he noted the women were forced to use contraception.

The Initiative for the rights of people with mental disabilities (MDRI–S) found out what happened to women who got pregnant nevertheless.

“We had an interview with a woman who reported she was pregnant and was taken to something that was supposed to be a routine medical check-up, but after she woke up from anaesthesia she was told she had an abortion,” Lazar Stefanovic from the Initiative said.