Montenegrin authorities on Thursday announced an investigation into the country's ex special prosecutor over his alleged links to war crimes committed during the bloody breakup of the former Yugoslavia.
Milivoje Katnic was arrested earlier this year and jailed for alleged abuse of office and links to organised crime.
According to a statement from the Special State Prosecutor's Office, now Katnic is being investigated also on the "reasonable suspicion he committed the criminal offence of war crimes against a civilian population".
"He is accused of inhumane treatment of certain civilians of Croatian nationality, including attacking, torturing, and physically injuring them," the statement added.
Following the death of Yugoslavia's long-time strongman Josip Broz Tito in 1980, the Yugoslav federation found itself in a crisis, with bickering between ethnic groups and surging nationalist sentiments.
By the 1990s, a string of conflicts broke out across Yugoslavia, including fighting in Bosnia, Croatia and later Kosovo.
In the decades since, several leading figures from the wars have been prosecuted at an international tribunal in The Hague. Scores more have been tried by local courts across the Balkans.
In April, Katnic was arrested alongside former high-ranking police official Zoran Lazovic.
Katnic -- Montenegro's chief special prosecutor from 2015 until February 2022 -- is also suspected of lifting entry bans for members of a criminal gang from neighbouring Serbia.
In the past two years, Montenegro has arrested a number of former leaders of judicial institutions and the police, including former president of the Supreme Court Vesna Medenica.
As part of its bid for European Union membership, officials in Montenegro have pledged to tackle the corruption and organised crime plaguing this tiny nation.