Local Justice – Guso and Suljagic: Detainee without Injuries

Defence witnesses Fahrudin Rendic and Camil Sehovic, former military policemen with the 108th Brigade of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina, ABiH, said that they guarded a building, in which Branko Radenkovic, former member of the Republika Srpska Army, VRS, was detained in 1994. They said that they did not notice any injuries on his body. Witness Rendic said that he started guarding Radenkovic in that building two days after he had been captured in August 1994.“Radenkovic stayed in a summer house in the close vicinity of the Military Police base in Maoca. When I saw him the first time, he was sitting on a bench in front of the house. I did not notice any visible injuries on him. He did not complain to me,” Rendic said.Rendic told the Court that nobody examined Radenkovic during the course of his shifts.“I know that a friend visited him once and brought him sweets. I used to give him cigarettes, because I did not smoke and we stood in front of the house together,” Rendic said.Nusret Guso and Mirsad Suljagic are charged with having participated in the examination, humiliation and physical abuse of prisoner of war Branko Radenkovic several times during August 1994.The Brcko District Prosecution alleges that Guso and Suljagic “stood out” from the rest in while abusing and examining the injured party, whom they beat using “police batons, hands and legs”.The indictment alleges that Guso was Assistant Commander for Morale with the Military Police Company and Suljagic was Security Officer with the 108th Motorised Brigade of ABiH at the time.Defence witness Camil Sehovic said that he guarded injured party Radenkovic in a summer house in Maoca several times after he had been captured.“I had known Radenkovic from before the war. We spoke frequently during his detention. While I was on duty, nobody visited or examined him. However, he once told me that he was hit by a soldier several times during the course of his capture on the front line. He said that it was not dangerous and that he did not need medical assistance,” Sehovic said.The trial is due to continue on April 24, 2012. M.A.