CHO: Scandalous and absolutely untenable accusations against Boban Batrićević

The Montenegrin Helsinki Committee for Human Rights (CHO) strongly condemns as scandalous, senseless and absolutely unsustainable the action of the Higher State Prosecutor's Office in Podgorica, which requested the Court for Misdemeanors in Podgorica to initiate proceedings against Prof. Dr. Boban Batrićević, because of his text/column on the Antena M portal, "The priests of the Church of Serbia do not preach the faith of Christ", which was published in June of this year.
As they state, such a procedure of the Higher State Prosecutor's Office, apart from being completely meaningless, represents a direct attack on freedom of speech and expression and represents another indicator of the instrumentalization of some segments of the prosecution organization by clerical-nationalist circles in and around the government, and especially by the Church of Serbia .
"It is common knowledge that the leaders and priests of the Church of Serbia have never uttered a single word that could be understood as nationalism, national-chauvinism, xenophobia and hatred towards other religions and peoples. They, too, never supported war criminals, nor did they justify terrible war crimes and genocide. They were among the first in the anti-war movement in the former Yugoslavia and here, here in Montenegro. They dissuaded people from war, crime and robbery and never justified and hid the fugitives and criminals from The Hague," they said in the statement.
Also, as they add, the Church of Serbia has never incited war, never denied and belittled Montenegrins, nor our fellow citizens Catholics and Muslims, nor declared them false people, religions and nations.
"That Church also never used the language of hatred and violence, nor did it promote social, cultural and political concepts that are in direct opposition to the values and principles that all religions teach us - love, peace and solidarity among people. That is why the Church of Serbia has never beatified - declared as saints - Chetnik butchers and murderers from the Second World War, such as a certain Milorad Vukojičić, known as Mäca, who got such a cute nickname because he killed women and children with a sledgehammer, nor has it ever sought the rehabilitation of collaborators of the occupiers and criminals from that war", they emphasize in the announcement.
The Church of Serbia has never done all that, but it recognizes Montenegro and Montenegrins, and the language and culture and the Montenegrin church, as it is extremely generous towards our fellow citizens Albanians, Catholics and Muslims, and even towards our neighbors Croats.
"The Church of Serbia is especially kind to our Bosniaks and Muslims - and it has never uttered a single ugly word about them, nor has it called for violence and has always been in the front lines when the sad and tragic anniversary of the genocide in Srebrenica is commemorated. In addition to all that, the priests of the Church of Serbia were not gathered "with stakes and ropes", they were not imported to our country, where many of them have been staying for years and are staying without any documents, in a number that one of their spokespersons compared to the Army of Montenegro, from which army is "stronger" in mantles. Finally, the Church of Serbia is not mentioned in the EU documents as an organization linked to terrorism, and it is known that this church has never been linked to the trade and storage of weapons. The Church of Serbia has nothing to do with the so-called to "orthodox brothers", some kind of night wolves and black shirts, who propagate fascist and openly fascist ideas", they emphasize in the announcement.
The Church of Serbia and its paid officials, up to the highest level, never supported the Russian criminal aggression against Ukraine, nor did they call Montenegro "Little Ukraine", nor did they demand its "Ukrainization".
"That's why, instead of our sincere and public appeal to the Higher State Prosecutor's Office to compare the reality we live in with what the Church of Serbia "DOESN'T DO", and to abandon the completely unfounded and unworthy prosecution of Prof. Dr. Boban Batrićević, we would take the liberty of asking the prosecutor who signed that request, or one of her colleagues, to check the stage of the proceedings against a certain priest of the aforementioned Immaculate "Christ" Church, who, according to the Serbian-Russian portal in owned by the illegal rector V. Božović, more than half a year ago, wrote a shameful pamphlet against Montenegro, its survival and the common life of its citizens, with a direct brutal call to violence and confrontation with dissidents, entitled "Ukrainization or death", they conclude in the announcement .
M.J.