Knezevic, Metodije Face Criminal Complaints Over Mladic
Five NGOs have filed criminal complaints with the prosecutor's office in Rozaje against Milan Knezevic and Metropolitan Metodije over their comments after the death of Ratko Mladic.
The Basic State Prosecutor’s Office in Rozaje has received criminal complaints against Milan Knezevic, a member of Montenegro’s parliament and leader of the Democratic People’s Party, and against Metodije, the Metropolitan of Budimlja and Niksic. The complaints were filed by five NGOs, Promjene, Endelus, the Bosniak Cultural Center Sandzak, Arhitektura Sandzaka and the Bosniak Cultural Community, over public statements the two men made after the death of General Ratko Mladic. The case carries a Serbian dimension as well: Mladic was convicted with final effect by the Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals, the successor to the Hague Tribunal whose rulings have strained relations between Belgrade and its neighbors for years, and his death has reopened the question of how he is discussed in public across the region.
The complaints invoke Article 370 of Montenegro’s Criminal Code, which sets out liability for publicly condoning or grossly minimizing genocide and other international crimes. The NGOs argue that Knezevic and Metodije violated that provision through statements they made shortly after news broke that Mladic had died in the Mechanism’s detention unit hospital in The Hague.
What Did Knezevic and Metodije Say?
On August 27, the same day his death was announced, Knezevic posted a photo of the general on X (formerly Twitter) with the message:
“Glory is eternal, suffering is brief. Every Serbian home has its own Ratko.”
According to the complaint, Metropolitan Metodije, speaking at a memorial service for Mladic, called the general a “great man,” a “great Serb” and someone “worthy of respect,” adding that people recognized in him the “sacred qualities of holy Serbian warriors and knights.”
In explaining the complaints, the NGOs insist they are not asking prosecutors to rule on faith or politics but on specific statements. As they put it in a joint statement signed by all five organizations:
“Srebrenica is not a matter of political or national interpretation. The genocide in Srebrenica is a legally established judicial fact. The criminal complaints do not prejudge the guilt of the persons reported. The prosecution is required to establish all the facts and circumstances and assess whether these public statements meet the elements of the criminal offense under Article 370 of Montenegro’s Criminal Code.”
A Dispute That Started Days Earlier
This is not the first reaction to play out between Podgorica and Belgrade since Mladic’s death was announced. Days earlier, Andrija Mandic, the Speaker of Montenegro’s Parliament, offered condolences over the general’s death, prompting a public response from President Jakov Milatovic. That exchange had already shown how divisive the question of Mladic’s legacy remains in Montenegrin politics, where the Democratic Front, of which Knezevic is one of the leaders, has traditionally taken pro-Serbian positions, while Milatovic and part of the government insist on a clear distance from glorifying people convicted with final effect of war crimes. The criminal complaints filed in Rozaje now move that divide out of political debate and into the prosecutor’s hands.
The case falls under the jurisdiction of the Basic State Prosecutor’s Office in Rozaje, a town in northern Montenegro where some of the complainants, organizations working on the rights of the Bosniak community in Sandzak, are also based. As the complainants point out, the law makes no exception for public office or religious authority: the offense under Article 370 can be brought against a member of parliament or a church dignitary alike, if prosecutors find the legal conditions are met.
No deadline has been announced for the prosecutor’s office to respond to the complaints, and as of this writing neither Knezevic nor Metodije has commented on them. The European Union, whose accession process is one of the few subjects that commands broad consensus in Podgorica, tracks cases like this as part of its assessment of the rule of law, meaning the outcome of the Rozaje complaints could end up factoring into a wider report on Montenegro’s progress.
