Pejović: We want a judicial epilogue, I did not come to exert pressure but to ask - what are we waiting for

It will be four years since our tragedy, and I believe a judicial epilogue should be reached - said Vesna Pejović, mother and grandmother of the victims of the Medovina massacre, after a meeting with the President of the High Court, Zoran Radović, in Podgorica.

Pejović, together with her husband, came this morning on her own initiative to speak with Radović, one month after submitting a request for a meeting. She said outside the Podgorica High Court for Portal ETV that they were received, after initial reluctance, and that Radović was correct in his approach. As she explained, he suggested that they submit a request for the acceleration of the proceedings. She recalls that the High Court is handling a case in which former head of the Cetinje branch office for civil status and personal documents, Olivera Krivokapić, was sentenced to six months in prison, and that the Basic State Prosecutor’s Office in Cetinje filed an appeal after she was again convicted one month later for abuse of office.

- We came because we knew the case was before the High Court, to find out what we are waiting for. We can no longer wait, because this is just another link in the chain of our suffering and struggle to see the accused where they belong. I did not come to exert pressure, but to ask what we are waiting for - Pejović said.

Sentencing

However, as she added, she has had to exert pressure everywhere in order for institutions to do their job.

- Although we initially faced reluctance and were told we would not be received, I remained determined to wait. Radović was correct, he heard us out and instructed us to submit a request to speed up the process. I did not come to influence the verdict, but to say that people should think carefully, that a six-month prison sentence cannot be appropriate given the scale of the tragedy - Pejović said.

She recalls that she has had multiple meetings with state officials, including those in the highest positions, without any protocol.

- Prime Minister Milojko Spajić met with me several times, as did the Director of the Police Administration Lazar Šćepanović and the Chief State Prosecutor Milorad Marković. All of them met with me. I waited a month, came today, decided to see it through to the end, stayed patient, and I was finally granted a meeting - she said.

She emphasizes that institutions should simply work according to the law, and adds that if they had remained silent, the case would have been forgotten after three months. She also referred to the prosecution, which three months after the bloody rampage carried out by Vuk Borilović on 12 August 2022, in which 10 people were killed, stated that the case was closed because the perpetrator had been killed.

- I believe this is the priority of all priorities, because I will not allow there to be no epilogue. I only asked that, in accordance with the Constitution and the law, they assess the consequences of someone’s negligence. Krivokapić issued weapons permits, which is very serious. That should be a trigger for all those in important positions to act in accordance with the law. The weapons law also needs to be adopted, named after my two grandsons (Markov and Mašan’s Law), and implemented. Weapons must be controlled as to who they are issued to, so that Montenegrin children are safe in their homes, because four boys were killed in their own homes. I am not interested in anything else - Pejović said firmly.

The Constitution and the law

The system, she stresses, must function.

- My husband and I should not have to constantly push things forward; that is their duty. This was a bloody rampage, and I believe that one day it will be called by its proper name - it was not a massacre, but, according to experts, a terrorist act - Pejović said.

She also said they did not receive a concrete answer as to why the proceedings are still ongoing.

- I guarantee that I did not exert pressure, otherwise they would not have received me, nor would they have written a request today to speed up the proceedings. We come to say that they must do their job. I will not give up. That is my decision. I hope I will achieve my goal, because I feel I must do it for them, especially for all the children and their friends - she said.

She adds that all massacres that have occurred in the region happened after this one, yet have received judicial epilogues.

- That is what we want as well. One must be concluded. It means nothing to me until I see someone behind bars. If they had put the killer behind bars after the final conviction he had before Medovina, our loved ones would be alive today; if they had taken away his weapons… they did not do that. The system failed and is an accomplice in the murder of my children and all those people who were killed in Medovina - Pejović said.

She expressed gratitude to all honest people within the system who supported her.

- If everyone has a family, they should think about the pain and grief we live with. They should simply act according to the Constitution and the law, and not convict someone who is not guilty, but the person who made mistakes in everything. If the system does not operate in accordance with justice and the law - justice will be in my hands, as I have held it all this time - she concluded.

J. B.