18 Feb Report of the Council of Europe’s Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) on physical ill-treatment of detained persons in Serbia

The Council of Europe’s Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) has published on June 21, 2018 the report on its ad hoc visit to Serbia, which took place from 31 May to 7 June 2017, together with the response of the Serbian Government.

The report highlights that a significant number of allegations of physical ill-treatment of detained persons by police officers were received by the CPT’s delegation in particular in larger urban areas of the country (i.e. Belgrade, Niš and Novi Sad). The physical ill-treatment alleged consisted of slaps, punches, kicks, truncheon blows and strikes with non-standard objects (such as baseball bats).Several claims of criminal suspects being subjected to shocks from electrical discharge devices were also received.

The report states that the Serbian authorities must recognize that the existence of ill-treatment by police officers is a fact; it is not the work of a few rogue officers but rather an accepted practice within the current police culture, notably among crime inspectors.

In the nine pre-trial sections of the establishments visited, overcrowding remained a problem. The situation is worsened by the fact that pre-trial detainees are locked in their cells for 22 or more hours a day for months on end, with no access to purposeful activities and numerous judicially-imposed restrictions throughout the pre-trial period. The CPT considers that such a regime is a relic of the past and it recommends the Serbian authorities devise and implement a comprehensive regime of out-of-cell activities for remand prisoners.

You can read the report here: https://rm.coe.int/16808b5ee7 and the response by Serbian Government here: https://rm.coe.int/16808b5eea