Not Everybody Survived the Beating

Subotic said that police came to Duzice hamlet in order to search it, looking for weapons, on June 10, 1992.
 
“The indictee began beating me and my father with a baton immediately. Mujo Frljak drove a VW Golf, which drove us to the Police Station. All local residents of Duzice, except Nedjo Subotic, were brought to the Station. Eight of us were present in one room. They hit us. They did it in groups of three. They said that Zdravko kept weapons in a pig barn, so they took him away to get it and brought him back,” Subotic said.  According to the witness, they continued beating them with a wooden and rubber baton.

“Zdravko was dead in 15 minutes. Dedic and Galib Hodzic beat him up. When Zdravko fell down, Dedic got scared and said: ‘We have killed him’. Galib responded by saying: ‘F…him. We have killed a Chetnik’. Zdravko was old, so he could not survive,” Subotic said.
 
He said that Police Commander Meho Kulic yelled at the two men, telling them to stop beating people, or else they would kill all of them.
 
They were then transferred to a warehouse. “Momcilo Subotic was beaten up more than any of us. He could not get up. When Galib came in, he said that we all had to get up. He then looked at Momcilo and said: ‘He does not have to. He’ll die anyway’. That is what happened eventually. He died an hour later,” Subotic said, adding that he had known the indictee his whole life and that they used to be neighbours.
 
The Defence said that the witness had changed significant facts in comparison to his statement given during the investigation, adding that, in its closing statement it would explain why the witness could not be trusted. 
 
Nikola Novakovic, who used to live in Bicanovici hamlet, testified about these events too. He said that the indictee and Rasim Sabanovic took him from his hamlet to the Police Station, where they examined him about a radio station and weapons.  
 
“I said that I did not have a radio station and that I was assigned a rifle legally in 1990. They did not believe me, so they forced me to admit that the SDS had given me the rifle. They beat me. I tried to stop Dedic, telling him to kill me if I was guilty and to stop torturing me. Inspector Arif Sirotanovic responded by telling me: “Just wait. Do you see this blood around here? Most of the blood will be yours’,” Novakovic said.
 
He told the Court that he then went to his house, along with Sabanovic and Dedic, and showed them where the rifle, ammunition and knife were. On their way back they put the rifle on his shoulder. 
 
“People looked at me while they told them that I was tasked with killing their children. Then they spit on me and insulted me,” the witness said, adding that the beating continued at the Police Station.  
 
As he said, Novakovic was examined by a doctor, who said that they should keep his head high and force him to take deep breaths, so he “might survive”.

When asked whether he could recognise Hajrudin Dedic in the courtroom, the witness pointed to the indictee and said that he “had their face”.

The trial is due to continue on December 9.