Jutarnji list at the crime scene: Young man beaten to death and tortured, video posted on Facebook

In the village of Žabjek near Krško in Slovenia, a monstrous crime occurred whose victim was 26-year-old Andrej Cekuta, who died on Tuesday at the Ljubljana Clinical Centre from the consequences of a brutal beating, write reporters from Jutarnji list at the scene, Patria reports.

Two men, aged 20 and 29, who brutally beat and tortured him were taken into custody by the police on Tuesday morning, and the case is made extremely bizarre by the fact that the abusers filmed everything and posted it on their Facebook profiles. Thus, according to Slovenian media, by Monday when the police removed the video from social networks, it had been viewed more than 100,000 times, and according to some sources, even 230,000 times. Those who had the opportunity to see the video claim it is horrifying.

“After ten seconds I could no longer watch it,” says a girl in Krško. Residents of Podbočje with whom we spoke claim they learned about the crime from the newspapers and cannot believe what happened in their small town. Two younger women confirmed that they knew the attackers who, they say, lived together for some time in a dilapidated old house in Žabjek; both were seen in an intoxicated state and were prone to theft and other crime.

One woman says that the 26-year-old who was beaten had also been living with them in recent months. The crime, locals say, occurred in the yard of a house at whose entrance the name Martin Kovač is written, who according to Slovenian media is one of the two attackers. The house is in a dilapidated state. Residents of nearby houses were not willing to talk, nor were guests at two inns in neighbouring Podbočje.

Slovenian media name the attackers as Martin Kovač (29) and Aleš Olovec (20), and the victim, they claim, is Andrej Cekuta (26), who was allegedly Aleš's friend. Olovec posted the video on his Facebook profile, and Kovač filmed the abuse. Both tortured him. The video shows a young man covered in bruises, lying unconscious with swollen eyes and blood on his cheeks and neck.

The video is so horrific that many viewers initially doubted its authenticity. Shortly after it appeared on social networks, someone informed the police of its existence, who easily uncovered the identity of the attackers, and in the early morning hours on Monday, police found the beaten young man in the grass near the house. He was taken to the hospital in Novo Mesto, where it was confirmed to journalists that he was in life-threatening condition, and then to Ljubljana.

Besides the general public, psychologists are particularly appalled by the event, warning of the dangers of the influence of violence through social networks. Criminologist Dr. Dragan Petrovec from the Ljubljana Faculty of Law called on the media to show great restraint in this case. He claims the case proves the existence of latent “ice psychopaths,” people without moral scruples who exist in every society, and in whom special circumstances can act as a trigger and provoke violent reactions and a complete lack of empathy.