Local Justice Markovic: Torture in Sokolac
This post is also available in: Bosnian
Acting on an order by the District Prosecution in Eastern Sarajevo, psychiatrist Alma Bravo Mehmedbasic and psychologist Senadin Fadilpasic conducted an expert examination of witness Dugic and determined that he was a healthy man prior to the traumatic events in Sokolac.
He was completely healthy prior to the torture he suffered during the war. He said that he was taken out of his house as a civilian and escorted to Sokolac, where he was subjected to abuse. He said that Milan Markovic was particularly eager to abuse him, adding that, while he was held in an isolation cell in the Police Station building, he beat him with a steel stick and rubber baton on all parts of his body, Mehmedbasic said.
She said that the fact that he was held in detention led to post-traumatic stress disorder in Dugics case.
The District Prosecution in Eastern Sarajevo charges Markovic, former member of the Republika Srpska Army, VRS with having beaten and physically abused detained civilians in Sokolac municipality from June 1992 to March 1993.
The indictment alleges that Markovic beat two detainees up with a metal stick and police baton in the Police Station premises in Sokolac in September 1992.
Psychologist Fadilpasic confirmed that Dugic suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder.
In this case the fact that he was held in a detention camp and subjected to torture caused stress and terror. The event that caused the most severe consequences protrudes as a stressor, Fadilpasic said.
During his testimony in October 2011 Dugic said that indictee Markovic, whom he recognised in the courtroom, beat him up in an isolation cell.
As far as the guards in the Sokolac Police Station are concerned, they treated me in a correct manner. All of them, except Markovic. He ordered me and Fikret Sirco to come close to the prison bars, took a metal stick and hit me on my ear and neck with it. He hit Fikret too. He then pushed the metal stick towards my right eye and hurt my forehead with it, Dugic said at that hearing.
The trial is due to continue on February 6.
