Witness Took a Dead Cellmate Out in His Hands

Witness Took a Dead Cellmate Out in His Hands

At the trial for crimes committed at the Central Prison and “Viktor Bubanj” army barracks in Sarajevo, the witness for the prosecution said that he took the dead body of his beaten cellmate out in his hands.

Radoslav Skoco, a former truck driver from the Sarajevo settlement of Doglodi, was captured on October 2, 1992, near Stup and taken to the nearby school, where he met more prisoners. He said he was harassed by an unknown man, and then taken to the nearby freezer, where he was beaten.

“I was telling them to stop beating me,” said Skoco, adding that afterwards two men took him tied up and blindfolded to Vranica, across the road from the Central Prison in Sarajevo, all the while threatening him they would cut his throat and throw him into the Miljacka river.

According to the witness, he was brought to officers where a soldier with automatic rifle was sitting. The soldier threatened the witness he would gouge his eye. After interrogation, the witness was taken to the Central Prison, although he was all black in the face from earlier beatings. The witness claimed that the next day the guards once again interrogated and beat him.

“When I returned to my cell, Slavko Herceg came and gave out an order that they take me to another cell. He gave me blankets and pillows, a salami and some waffles,”  said Skoco, adding that he was still brutally beaten several days later, which is why he suffers from permanent damage from it to this day. He said he was moved to “Viktor Bubanj” 15 days later.

“With us in the car was Jovan Divjak, who said: ‘We arrested a big fish, we still have to arrest his brothers and we’re done’,” said Skoco, adding that on arrival to the barracks he was threatened with death, but once again Slavko Herceg saved him.

He was not harassed in the barracks, but he saw other prisoners being beaten, and one of them even died from the beating. The witness said he took that prisoner out of their cell with his own hands. Conditions in the barracks were poor, Skoco claimed he lost forty kilograms, and could not take a bath for full three months.

Skoco stayed in “Viktor Bubanj” until April 1993, when he was put on trial as a “Serb soldier”. He was sentenced to six years in prison, after which he was once again moved to Central Prison,where he stayed till October 1994.

Asked by the prosecutor, Dzevad Muratbegovic, the witness said he did not know Ramiz Avdovic, but that he heard about him. He also heard about the second defendant Iulian-Nicolae Vintila,because a prisoner told him that he spilled his tea.

Avdovic and Vintila are charged, as members of the joint criminal enterprise, with participating in the establishment and maintenance of an abuse system of Serb civilians between June and late November 1992.

According to the indictment, Avdovic was at the time guard commander on the fifth floor of the District Prison in Sarajevo and former barracks Viktor Bubanj, while Vintila was a cook and guard in the former barracks.

The defence lawyer, Mirza Kovac, objected to Radoslav Skoc’s testimony.
“You interrogated a witness with speech impediment, I did not understand a thing he said,” said Kovac.
The Trial Chamber dismissed the objection.

The witness explained that he had surgery on his throat, which is why he was whispering, and in the courtroom in which he was examined there were no headphones for a better sound. The second witness for the prosecution, Fadil Jahic, said he worked as an investigator in the Central Prison and “Viktor Bubanj” barracks, on orders from the State Security Service.

“We interrogated apprehended people about the circumstances under which they were armed, enemy information and such. We made official statements and records on our observations,” said Jahic, adding that he never heard nor saw any of the defendants, whom he worked with, harassing anyone or doing anything bad.

He said prisoners never complained to beatings in the prison and barracks, nor food.

The trial is set to resume on September 6.