Three Romani minors who allege they were kidnapped, racially abused, and tortured by the owners of a petrol station in the village of Grebenac are receiving legal support from a lawyer provided by the European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC) in the ongoing criminal case against their abusers.
The ERRC has also contacted the local public prosecutor in Vršac to provide additional information on the human rights abuses that occurred and the likely racist motive to the crime which are relevant to the severity of the charges.
On 27th August 2024, three Romani boys, two aged 14 and one aged 15, were allegedly taken from their homes to the yard of a house in nearby Bela Crkva, where they were beaten, humiliated, racially abused, threatened with a gun, and ordered to shave each other’s heads on a video which was later released on the internet. Two days prior, the boys had stolen around €80 and four cans of fizzy drinks from the local petrol station ‘Agrodizel’ in the village of Grebenec. The boys allege that the owner of the petrol station, Aleksandar Neškov, went to their homes and took them away in a car on the pretence of demanding an apology. He then brought them to the home of his siter, Milica Tikic, where the abuse mostly took place, before continuing also in the petrol station where the initial shoplifting had occurred.
“Petty theft by children does not excuse extreme violence and racist humiliation” said the President of the ERRC, Đorđe Jovanović. “We have provided legal support for these boys to emphasise that racists cannot commit acts of terror like this against Romani communities and expect to get away with it. Criminal justice is the domain of public institutions and cannot be taken into the hands of private individuals.”
The parents of the boys filed a criminal complaint to the police after witnesses saw the children at the petrol station being forced to shave their heads. Based on this, the public prosecutor-initiated proceedings against the two suspects for the criminal offense of Abuse and Torture and facilitated a court order to prevent the suspects from approaching, meeting, or communicating with the boys. This order was adopted by the Basic Court in Vršac under case number KPP.69/24 on 3rd September. The ERRC-appointed-lawyer accompanied the Romani minors to the first hearing of the case on 11th September.
While the ERRC commends the decision of the public prosecutor to initiate proceedings against the two suspected abusers, the centre has contacted the office to provide additional information related to the alleged crime which we believe changes the material circumstances of the case and the correct legal qualification of the crime.
The initial information provided to the public prosecutor by the police did not include the fact that the minors allege they were threatened at gunpoint and told they would be shot if they stood up. Also omitted from the official record are threats made to the boys while they were forced to shave their heads. The suspects told the boys: “better shave you than cut you.” The fact that one of the suspects is reportedly skilled in martial arts was also communicated to the public prosecutor by the ERRC.
Considering that force and threats were allegedly used against the victims, and they allegedly suffered severe torment because of their ethnicity, the ERRC believes that all the elements of the higher qualified form of the crime of Abuse and Torture are present (under Article 137, Paragraph 2 of the Criminal Code). This is a more severe offence than the basic form of the same crime (under Paragraph 1) and carries a higher prescribed sentence of six months to five years of imprisonment, commensurate with the severity of the criminal act.
The ERRC will also represent the Romani minors as lawyers for the defence in the case against them for the theft from the petrol station.
The correspondence sent to the Office of the Public Prosecutor in Vršac is available here in English & Serbian.
This press release is also available in Serbian.
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