Councillor Milivoje Brković, an official of United Montenegro and a councillor of the „For the Future of Podgorica" coalition, is back in the hospital and in life-threatening condition - a week after he was brutally beaten in Podgorica for stepping in to defend a woman from two assailants.

According to TVPG sources, Brković took a turn for the worse two days ago, followed by emergency hospitalization. The diagnosis: a pulmonary embolism, which doctors suspect is a direct consequence of the blows during the attack. „Brković remains in life-threatening condition and is receiving therapy for the blood clots that appeared and that could cause serious complications," TVPG reports.

And now the most important part of the story: the attackers, Miša Vešović and Tomislav Šćepanović, are still free seven days later. The police, according to unofficial information, have collected footage from nearby cameras - but the perpetrators „are still evading the authorities." In a city the size of Podgorica, two men known to the police are invisible for a whole week. How?

Brković's party stated that he was attacked while trying to help a fellow citizen who had asked for help - he was first struck with a metal object until he lost consciousness, then beaten in the street. He sustained serious bodily injuries. The Democratic People's Party demanded an immediate arrest, stressing that the perpetrators are „persons of security interest" with a criminal record - which makes their escape even more inexplicable.

The case has put the Montenegrin public on its feet, and political parties are demanding an immediate response from the police and the prosecution. And rightly so: when a man who stepped in to defend a woman in the street ends up in the hospital twice, while those who beat him walk free - the message to every next passer-by is clear. Don't step in. Don't help. Mind your own road. That's a message no society in the Balkans can afford - and we all recognize it, because nowhere is it only Montenegrin.