Local Justice Hadzic and Hodzic: Hits to the Face
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Witness Borislav Piperac said that, after the fall of Bukvik he was hiding in the woods for seven days along with a few other local residents, adding that Croat units captured them in Poljaci. As he said, following a brief examination, they were transferred to Bosanska Bijela and then to Gornji Rahic.
They lined us up in front of the school building and began hitting us. While we were standing there, indictee Galib Hadzic hit me in my face, while another person hit me with a rifle butt. I fell down, the witness recalled.
He said that, in the evening he was brought in front of the school building, along with a few other Serb prisoners. A group of armed soldiers waited for them. They beat them, using butts, sticks, legs and arms. He said that they broke his shoulder.
Two or three days later indictee Nijaz Hodzic called my name in the corridor in front of one of the classrooms. He hit me with a stick and hands several times, so I fell down, said Piperac, who was then detained in the Co-operative building, along with about 300 Serb prisoners. He said that he was then transferred to a prison in Tuzla.
The indictment charges Hadzic and Hodzic with having participated in the torture and inhumane treatment of Serb civilians and prisoners of war from the Bukvik area, Brcko District in 1992 and 1993.
According to the charges, Hadzic was Crime Police Inspector with the Public Safety Station in Brcko, and Hodzic was military policeman with the Croatian Defence Council, HVO, who worked as a guard in detention camps and collection centres at that time.
Witness Slobodan Pajic said that he was captured and taken to Gornji Rahic together with Piperac.
While we were standing in front of the school building, indictee Galib Hadzic hit me a few times with his fist. Nijaz Hodzic then took me into the school gym, where he hit me on my face. I started losing conscience, Pajic said.
He said that he was beaten up several times in the next few days, but indictees Hodzic and Hadzic no longer participated in it.
The trial is due to continue on April 26, 2012.M.A.
