Pavasović Visković on the Drniš murderer: 'People with real mental illnesses are not that dangerous; he has an extreme personality disorder'

The recent brutal murder in Drniš has once again ignited a national conversation about the failures within our justice system. Lawyer Ljubo Pavasović Visković, speaking to RTL, offered a stark assessment of the situation, emphasizing that our legal framework is designed to punish past actions, not to predict or prevent future ones. This fundamental principle, he argues, makes it impossible to indefinitely detain individuals solely based on the *potential* for future danger, even if that potential seems high.

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It is absolutely possible. If I am not mistaken, he was sentenced to 15 years in prison, which at the time was almost the maximum sentence for that crime. He served that sentence. In the meantime, after that sentence, he had a criminal report from 2023, which, even if it had been processed promptly and he had been sentenced to one year in prison, would not have brought a different outcome, because he would have been at home for at least a year and a half and would again have had the potential to do what he did.

Pavasović Visković highlighted the specific case of Kristijan Aleksić, who, despite a previous 15-year sentence for murder, was at liberty to commit another heinous crime. He pointed out that even if Aleksić had received a one-year sentence for a separate weapons charge in 2023, he would have still been released before the Drniš murder, rendering the system's punitive measures insufficient to avert the tragedy.

Crucially, the lawyer distinguished between clinical mental illness and severe personality disorders. He posited that individuals capable of such extreme violence often suffer from the latter, which, paradoxically, may not be considered a state of "mental illness" in the conventional sense that would warrant indefinite institutionalization. This distinction is vital, as it challenges the simplistic notion that such perpetrators are merely "sick" and therefore beyond accountability. Instead, it points to a complex psychological profile that the current legal and psychiatric systems struggle to adequately address.

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You can prevent something that you can predict. Such a monstrous act, this horror that this man has committed, I don't think anyone can predict. Likewise, it should be clearly stated - the justice system does not prevent anything, the justice system punishes people for criminal offenses they commit.

The case raises profound questions about the balance between individual liberty and public safety. While the system must operate on evidence of committed crimes, the horrific outcome in Drniš forces us to confront the limitations of that approach. Pavasović Visković’s analysis, while explaining the legal realities, implicitly underscores the deep societal concern and the urgent need for a more effective means of identifying and managing individuals who pose an extreme risk, even if their psychological state doesn't fit traditional definitions of severe mental illness.

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Most perpetrators of this kind, people who have the potential to do something like this, are not mentally ill. People who have real mental illnesses are not as dangerous as people who have a personality disorder expressed to a great extent. You will see in this procedure that it will turn out that this man has an extreme personality disorder and that is it. He is medically healthy.