Local Justice Pudic: Hit on Shoulder with Baton
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Witness Sabit Arnautovic said that a few Serb soldiers took him, on May 10, 1993, from his house in S, Brcko to the police building and then to Luka detention camp.
In one of the hangars I saw between 70 and 80 people. My brother was among them. I noticed a swelling on his face. On that day I was taken out for examination and beaten up by unknown soldiers several times. I was once examined by indictee Pudic, who hit me with a police baton on my shoulder and back several times. I still feel the consequences of that beating, the witness said.
When asked by Defence attorney Dragomir Dumic if anybody could confirm that the indictee hit him, the witness said that Dzemo Zahirovic was present in the office with him and Pudic, but he did not know where Zahirovic was at the moment. Also, he said that a woman, who now lives in Brcko, saw that he was covered with blood after the examination, but she does not want to testify about it.
The indictment charges Pudic, former policeman with the Public Safety Station in Brcko and guard in Luka concentration camp, in six counts with having tortured, treated in an inhumane manner, caused suffering and participated in physical and mental abuse of prisoners.
He is charged with having hit the detained civilians with a police baton, revolver handle and legs.
Witness Ibrahim Levic told the Court that two Serb soldiers arrested him in the vicinity of his house in Brcko on May 25, 1992 and took him to the Internal Affairs Service building. Two days later he was transported to the first hangar in Luka detention camp.
Two, three days later a young soldier came. He was dressed in camouflage uniform. He had a black hood on his head and bayonet in his hand. He started carving my forehead with the bayonet. Blood started pouring over my face. Indictee Branko Pudic told him: ‘Do not make deep cuts’. When the soldier left, Pudic pushed me towards some other prisoners in the hangar and told me: ‘Hide, so that he does not kill you’, the witness said.
When asked by the Defence if Pudic wanted to save him, by pushing him and telling him to run away, Levic answered affirmatively, adding that, nevertheless, he considered that the indictee was an accomplice in that. The witness said that he considered that Pudic did not dare confront the armed soldier.
Witness Samir Toskic said that he had known indictee Pudic from before the war, as a policeman. He said that he saw him only once during his twenty-day detention in Luka detention camp, adding that he had never heard that he mistreated anybody.
The trial is due to continue on April 24, 2012.
M.A.
