Serbia investigates torture in Catholic Drug Rehab centre

international | crime and justice | other press

Saturday May 23, 2009 16:11

by spare the rod spoil the childer

Branislav Peranovic is the "archpriest" (orthodox equivalent to dean's rank) who has run the "Novi Pazar" drug rehabilitation centre since 2003. Video footage shown on Thursday night on Serbian TV,& being widely picked up throughout European media, clearly shows inmates being beaten, a regular occurence which Peranovic justifies completely telling press that a "heavy hand" is needed and that anyone who has a "junkie in their home" would understand this. He further insists that parents of his "patients" approve the regime which is now to be investigated by the Serbian state who understandably consider the whole thing to be torture.

One former inmate describes how patients put their trousers bottoms in their socks before their beatings knowing that they will lose bowel control & in common parlance "shit themselves" but at least it won't go over the carpet or tiles.

At the Spiritual-Rehabilitation Center Crna Reka, led by Archpriest Branislav Peranović, drug addicts face beatings, weekly Vreme (Serbian news report program) says. Other than the fact that they are often assaulted with shovels, the question is whether the medicine, psychiatry or law have any purpose when the medicine dosages are determined by Peranović, "who studied agriculture". At the same time, “nurses are authorized beaters", while pit bull terriers and Dobermans guard the facilities.

The center is located near Novi Pazar in the south-west of the country and has been registered since 2005 t[hough open much longer.]

A man who went through “rehabilitation” there told the weekly that his parents took him to the center. "Along with pleasant conversation", he said, the center's representatives offered his parents a contract stating that all forms of treatment can be used on the addict, including light, "and somewhat more severe" beating. The contract covered six months of rehabilitation for the price of EUR 350 per month, he revealed. “In the yard, they gather the addicts in a circle to watch the ‘bad one’ get beaten. They hit him with clubs, shovels, fists, bars, belts, whatever they get their hands on,” the former patient stated.
According to him, Archpriest Peranović himself “knows how to hit, his hands are often bloody”. “When he hits, using his arms and legs, his robe flies all over the place. He practices martial arts,” the man told Vreme....."

http://www.b92.net/eng/news/society-article.php?yyyy=20...59305

"....The Health Ministry has sent its inspectors to the Spiritual-Rehabilitation Center Crna Reka, in southwestern Serbia. Minister Tomica Milosavljević's assistant, Ivana Mišić, told B92 that the goal of this will be to determine whether the center has engaged in unqualified medical practice. At the same time, Citizens Rights Ombudsman Saša Janković has filed criminal complaints against nine of the center's leader and employees, citing physical torture of patients. Belgrade's week Vreme reported about the controversial rehab on Friday, where according to witnesses drug addicts suffer severe beatings as part of their treatment. Vreme's Prvoslav Karanović, who broke the story, says he believes that his article and photographs published on the weekly's website have encouraged others to come forward and speak about their experiences at the center.

http://www.b92.net/eng/news/society-article.php?yyyy=20...59344

It has now emerged that parents who are too poor and feeble to kick the shite out of their junkie kids are offered a discount on the usual 350euros :-

"The treatment costs according to the financial status of an addict's family, "EUR 200, 350, 400".

200 euros is quite a bargain most people will agree.

last link to BBC with vid excerpt :-

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Comments (2 of 2)

the right thing ...?

by kh - nmn

Sat May 23, 2009 16:21

Now those who seek absolute power, even though they seek it to do what they regard as good, are simply demanding the right to enforce their own version of heaven on earth, and let me remind you they are the very ones who always create the most hellish tyranny. — Barry Goldwater

Parents of addict in torture video press criminal charges against rehab centre.

Sun May 24, 2009 18:46

Parents of a drug addict formerly treated at the Crna Reka rehab center will file criminal complaints against the persons who took part in his beating. The man, identified as 23-year-old D.P. of Zaječar in eastern Serbia, was shown brutally beaten in a video that recently surfaced on the internet. D.P. told B92 that he was treated at the center in southwestern Serbia three times since 2006. In that time, according to him, he was beaten severely two times by the rehab's so-called associates, i.e. former patients, but also the center's director, priest Branislav Peranović. His parents paid up to EUR 300 a month for the treatment of his addiction.

However, a number of other parents agree with the methods used in Crna Reka. On Saturday, they issued a statement http://www.b92.net/eng/news/society-article.php?yyyy=20...59344 saying that public showing of the type of treatment practiced at the center was not benefiting their children. They also voiced full confidence in the work of those employed at the spiritual rehab center, located on monastery grounds.

But, the Holy Synod of the Serbian Orthodox Church disagrees with the brutal methods and has called for the illegal center to be shut down. The Synod also wants a church court procedure to be initiated against those responsible.
http://www.b92.net/eng/news/crimes-article.php?yyyy=200...59357

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These Serbian Orthodox Catholics are obviously doing their bit for the national reputation of Serbia in acting so promptly and saying the right things. They are also saving their cash-strapped state a packet on inquiry fees.

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Serbia investigates torture in Catholic Drug Rehab centre

Comments (2 of 2)