In mid-March 2021 in the Montenegrin coastal town of Budva, a pensioner molested two girls, both aged 10 at the time, trying to kiss and touch them on two separate occasions in the space of a few days.
Arrested, charged and put on trial before the Basic Court of Kotor, the offender was given a suspended sentence of three months in prison.
He could have been jailed for up to two years, but BIRN’s analysis of first-instance verdicts for sexual crimes against minors since 2017 show courts in Montenegro regularly hand down the minimum sentence.
Of 32 people prosecuted for illicit sexual acts against minors in the past six year, 14 received prison sentences of less than a year. In nine cases, the defendant was sentenced to more than a year. Three of those received the maximum sentence of two years.
In five cases, like the one in Budva, the defendant received a suspended sentence of up to seven months. In three cases, the defendants were acquitted. In one case, the accuser was convicted of false reporting and false testimony and sentenced to seven months in prison.
