Prosecution requests information-gathering: Knežević summoned by police over praise for Mladić
Member of Parliament and leader of the Democratic People’s Party Milan Knežević has been summoned to give a statement to police over recent comments in which he praised the late convicted war criminal Ratko Mladić.
As Duško Milanović, head of the Higher State Prosecutor’s Office in Podgorica, told ETV Portal, the Higher State Prosecutor’s Office initiated the collection of information from Knežević through the police.
Adria TV reports that Knežević is expected to be questioned tomorrow at the Podgorica Security Centre.
Knežević posted on social media after it was announced that Mladić, who had been finally convicted by an international criminal court of genocide, crimes against humanity and violations of the laws and customs of war, had died at the age of 85 in a detention facility in The Hague.
- Glory is eternal, while suffering is short-lived. Every Serbian household has a Ratko - Knežević wrote.
A group of non-governmental organisations responded by filing criminal complaints against Knežević and Metropolitan Metodije of the Serbian Orthodox Church’s Diocese of Budimlje and Nikšić, alleging that their public statements constituted the criminal offence of inciting national, racial and religious hatred.
They were reported for allegedly committing the offence under Article 370, paragraph 2 of Montenegro’s Criminal Code, which concerns publicly approving, denying the existence of, or significantly diminishing the gravity of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.
- Srebrenica is not a matter of political or national interpretation. The genocide in Srebrenica is an established fact of a final court judgment - the NGOs said.
Knežević thanked the group of NGOs for the move, saying that he „could not have found himself in better company“.
- Except that they did not quote my post exactly, so I have to repeat it - Knežević wrote on X, reposting his earlier statement about Mladić.
Ratko Mladić, who was born in Kalinovik, was finally convicted in June 2021 by the International Criminal Tribunal in The Hague of genocide in Srebrenica, persecution of civilians, extermination and murder, deportation and inhumane acts, terrorising the population and unlawful attacks on Sarajevo, as well as taking UN personnel hostage. The court found him guilty on 10 of the 11 counts of the indictment.
Because of his crimes, he also became known internationally as the „Butcher of Bosnia“, and was held directly responsible for the deaths of more than 8,000 men and boys in Srebrenica in 1995.
Criminals who served under Mladić’s command also testified about the horrific crimes and operations he ordered.
After the war, Mladić spent 15 years in hiding and evading criminal responsibility. He was arrested on 26 May 2011 in Serbia, specifically in the village of Lazarevo near Zrenjanin.
He died in The Hague on 27 August.