13 Under Serbian labour legislation, a person sentenced to a jail term of up to six months may be reinstated in the position he/she previously held. 14 The case of V.K. is an example of this practice. V.K. was beaten on 13 November 1996 by officers of the Pancevo Police Department, as a result of which he suffered brain damage, a broken occipital bone, a broken jaw and nose and irreparably damaged hearing. On 12 December 1996 he filed a complaint accusing two police officers of inflicting severe bodily injuries. On 5 March 1997, the prosecutor dropped the charges, as a result of which V.K. undertook private prosecution. In the course of 2001, 12 hearings were scheduled but only 2 took place. One was postponed because judges were away for a conference and nine others because one or both defendants did not show up. (Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia, Human Rights and Transition - Serbia 2001, 2002, pp. 63-64.) 15 According to article 95 of the Criminal Code of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, crimes punishable by a prison term of three to five years are subject to a statutory limitation of five years. 16 As stated on several occasions, the Committee considers that torture is practised systematically when it is apparent that the torture cases reported have not occurred fortuitously in a particular place or at a particular time, but are seen to be habitual, widespread and deliberate in at least a considerable part of the territory of the country in question. Torture may in fact be of a systematic character without resulting from the direct intention of a Government. It may be the consequence of factors that the Government had difficulty in controlling, and its existence may indicate a discrepancy between policy as determined by the central Government and its implementation by the local administration. Inadequate legislation which in practice makes room for the use of torture may also add to its systematic nature. 17 Created by decision of the President of the Republic dated 29 March 2001. 18 Much of the information received concerns conduct that may not constitute torture under article 1 but instead may fall under article 16 of the Convention and, therefore, outside the scope of article 20. 19 90 There is no indication of the types of conduct involved.