BaBe Association Be active. Be emancipated. with this announcement, he is reacting to the first-instance verdict of the Court in Slavonski Brod, by which the Požega-Slavonia County Prefect Alojz Tomasevic sentenced to 10 months of suspended prison sentence with a two-year probation period for the crime of domestic violence. We believe that this sentence is not in line with the gravity of the crime committed and that it reflects the attitude of Croatian society towards domestic violence.
Just a week after we published a statement on the verdict in which the court acquitted a police officer despite being found guilty of sexual harassment of a colleague, we are once again forced to respond to injustice in court proceedings when it comes to violence against women.
Considering the incriminated period and the fact that these were serious forms of domestic violence that resulted in physical injury to the victim, the extremely mild sentence is surprising, considering that the Criminal Code prescribes a prison sentence of one to three years for each of the criminal offenses for which the perpetrator was convicted in this non-final verdict, specifically the criminal offense of domestic violence and the criminal offense of bodily injury committed against a close person.
The aforementioned verdict thus calls into question the effectiveness of criminal proceedings as a whole, which is not limited to the effective investigation and prosecution of perpetrators by state bodies, but also depends on the final outcome of the proceedings, which in this specific case, given the extremely lenient sentence, did not fulfill its purpose.
As a result of the above, we can conclude that there are no specific sanctions for the perpetrator himself, which does not achieve the purpose of punishment in terms of special and general prevention, so the case in question, if the verdict becomes final, will represent just another in a series of examples that send an extremely unfavorable message to victims of domestic violence that the legal system will not provide them with adequate protection, and thus discourages victims from reporting violence.
In addition to deterring victims from reporting violence, such a verdict also discourages victims from seeking help and ultimately from leaving the cycle of violence. It is precisely because of such verdicts that victims do not trust institutions, which is why a large percentage of gender-based violence remains unreported, in the so-called gray zone.
Violence against women is the most widespread systematic violation of human rights. Violence against women is not a private matter, violence is not a family value. Violence is not an isolated anomaly. Moreover, it is frequent, daily, and occurs all around us, and in order for us as a society to adequately respond to it, it is necessary for all sectors to take responsibility for their actions. Violence against women is a complex, deep-rooted social problem whose solution insists on the synergy of the entire society. It is necessary for all of us to adopt zero tolerance towards all forms of violence, which would mean sanctioning all forms of violence, a broad system of support for victims to overcome the trauma they have experienced, and restoring trust in the work of institutions.
