The European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) has published the report on its ad hoc visit to Serbia in March 2023, together with the response of the Serbian authorities. The visit focused on the treatment of persons deprived of their liberty by the police and the effectiveness of investigations into police ill-treatment allegations. The conditions of detention and treatment of remand prisoners as well as of juvenile offenders in the intensive intervention unit of the Kruševac Educational and Correctional Institution (VPD) were also examined.
The CPT report concludes that persons deprived of their liberty by the police continue to run the risk of ill-treatment which is some instances might amount to torture. Numerous allegations of physical ill-treatment of criminal suspects by police officers were received primarily in the Belgrade area. The allegations consisted of punches, slaps, kicks and blows with truncheons as well as practices such as placing a plastic bag over the head of criminal suspects and administering electric shocks from a hand-held device at the time of the arrest or at a police station. The Committee calls upon the Serbian authorities to adopt and implement a coherent strategy to eradicate police ill-treatment which should include a message of zero-tolerance from the highest political level, mandatory training of police inspectors on investigative interviewing skills and the strengthening of legal safeguards for criminal suspects. The CPT notably calls on the Serbian authorities to ensure the effective application of the right of access to a lawyer, there is also a need to introduce systemic audio-video recording of all police interviews.
In their reply, the Serbian authorities provide information on the measures taken to implement the CPT’s recommendations.
