Concerning the recent case in which a police officer, employed at the police station in Bogatić, wounded his ex-wife, also employed in the same PS, Autonomous Women's Center said that this shows that the Ministry of Interior has not resolved the problem of reporting and processing its employees as the perpetrators of domestic violence.

The AWC states that, from the information available to the public, we cannot conclude whether the suspect was criminally prosecuted for previous acts of violence, for which the victim was hospitalized for more than a year and because of which she divorced him. It is noted, however, that the available information shows that on this occasion the suspect was seized his weapons, but that it was returned after three days, when he continued his work as a police officer.

Although the representatives of the Ministry of Interior, and the Minister himself, for months are giving statements that all the suspects for the domestic violence are seized their weapons, the AWC wonders how it is possible that the weapon was returned to this suspect and only on the basis of the opinion of psychologist from MoI.

AWC believes that MoI needs to respond to the public about the measures it has taken in terms of reviewing procedures for the Mayor of PS Bogatić, for whom there are indications that he covered up crimes of violence committed by the suspect police officer and, by doing that, he committed a criminal offense of “not reporting the crime and the offender” referred to the Article 332 of the Criminal Code.

Concerning the recent case in which a police officer, employed at the police station in Bogatić, wounded his ex-wife, also employed in the same PS, Autonomous Women's Center said that this shows that the Ministry of Interior has not resolved the problem of reporting and processing its employees as the perpetrators of domestic violence.

The AWC states that, from the information available to the public, we cannot conclude whether the suspect was criminally prosecuted for previous acts of violence, for which the victim was hospitalized for more than a year and because of which she divorced him. It is noted, however, that the available information shows that on this occasion the suspect was seized his weapons, but that it was returned after three days, when he continued his work as a police officer.

Although the representatives of the Ministry of Interior, and the Minister himself, for months are giving statements that all the suspects for the domestic violence are seized their weapons, the AWC wonders how it is possible that the weapon was returned to this suspect and only on the basis of the opinion of psychologist from MoI.

AWC believes that MoI needs to respond to the public about the measures it has taken in terms of reviewing procedures for the Mayor of PS Bogatić, for whom there are indications that he covered up crimes of violence committed by the suspect police officer and, by doing that, he committed a criminal offense of “not reporting the crime and the offender” referred to the Article 332 of the Criminal Code.
In this case, we are especially concerned with the fact that the victim of domestic violence is also employed in the MoI. The question that pops up is whether the police officers in the PS Bogatić were able to protect any woman during the years who contacted them as a victim of violence committed by a partner or a family member. This would require a review of the work done by this PS.

Autonomous Women's Center reminds that they, almost a year ago, handed over the initiative to implement special procedures for reporting domestic violence committed by police officers to the president of the National Assembly Committee for Defence and Internal Affairs, National MPs Marija Obradović, who presented this question to the Minister at the meeting of the Committee held on 10 March 2015.

The Autonomous Women’s Center press release is available in Serbian here.