Criminal Code of the Republic of Montenegro (2003, as amended 2021) (excerpts related to Hate Crimes and other related Laws) (English)

 

Article 42a [aggravating circumstances]

(1) Where a criminal offence is committed out of hatred towards another person due to his national or ethnic affiliation, race or religion or due to the lack thereof, or due to disability, sex, sexual orientation or gender identity, such a circumstance shall be taken as aggravating by the court, unless that is stipulated as an element of the basic or more serious form of that criminal offence.

(2) Where a criminal offence is committed against a person who belongs to a particularly vulnerable category of persons (children, persons with disabilities, pregnant women, elderly persons, refugees) such a circumstance shall be taken as aggravating by the court.

Article 370 [Causing National, Racial and Religious Hatred]

(1) Anyone who publicly invites to violence or hatred towards a group or member of a group defined on the basis of race, skin color, religion, origin, national or ethnic affiliation, shall be punished by an imprisonment sentence for a term of six months to five years.

(2) The sentence referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article shall also be imposed on anyone who publicly approves, renounces the existence or significantly reduces the gravity of criminal offences of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes committed against a group or member of a group member defined based on race, skin color, religion, origin, national or ethnic affiliation, in the manner which can lead to violence or cause hatred against a group of persons or a member of such group, if those criminal offences have been determined by a final and enforceable judgment of a court in Montenegro or of the international criminal tribunal.

(3) Where an offence referred to in paras. 1 and 2 of this Article was committed by coercion, ill-treatment, endangering of safety, exposure to mockery of national, ethic or religious symbols, by damaging other person's goods, by desecration of monuments, memorials or tombs, the offender shall be punished by an imprisonment sentence for a term of one to eight years.

(4) Anyone who commits the offence referred to in paras. 1 to 3 of this Article by abusing his/her position or if those acts result in riots, violence or other severe consequences for the joint life of nations, national minorities or ethnic groups living in Montenegro, shall be punished for the offence referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article by an imprisonment sentence for a term of one to eight years and for the offence referred to in paras. 2 and 3 by an imprisonment sentence for a term of two to ten years.

Article 399a [Violent Behaviour at a Sports Event or Public Gathering]

(1) Whoever physically assaults or engages in physical confrontation with participants of a sports event or public gathering, who provokes violence or acts violently, brings into a sports facility or throws onto the sports grounds, among the spectators or participants of a public gathering, objects, pyrotechnics, or other explosive, incendiary or harmful substances that may lead to bodily injury or that may endanger health of participants of a sports event or public gathering, who goes onto the playing area without authority or into the opponents' fan section and provokes violence, damages the sports facility, its equipment, devices and installations, who by his conduct or chanting or banners displayed at a sports event or public gathering provokes ethnic, racial, religious or other hatred or intolerance on discriminatory grounds, which leads to violence or physical confrontation with participants, shall be punished by a prison sentence for a term from six months to five years and by a fine. 

Article 168 [Endangering Safety]

(1) Anyone who endangers the safety of other person by threatening to attack his/her life or body or a person close to him, shall be sentenced to a fine or imprisonment not exceeding one year.

(2) Anyone who commits the act referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article against more than one person, or the act that has caused anxiety of citizens or other serious consequences, shall be punished by three months to three years of imprisonment.