Dedic Accused of Beating Prisoners

Witness Spiro Subotic, a former Bosnian Serb soldier, told the court in Zenica on Wednesday said that he was captured in 1992 and then held in an isolation cell in the Elektroterma building in Breza for 28 days.

He said that some of his relatives and his neighbours and relatives from the village of Duzice in Gornja Breza were also brought to the building on June 10, and he found out later that they were beaten up while in detention.

“My brother Milorad had nine broken ribs. His right arm began going numb. He told me that indictee Dedic, whom I had known from before, was bloodthirsty and that he used to beat him up until he was exhausted,” the witness said.

Dedic is accused of having participated in the beating of Serb civilians during the collection of illegal weapons in June 1992. Two people are alleged to have died as a result of the beating, while three others suffered severe injuries.

Subotic told the court that other detainees who were being held at the Elektroterma building told him that two detainees were beat up death.

He said that some of his other relatives also accused the defendant of assaulting prisoners.

“My brother Milorad moved to Australia, because he did not want his children to experience the same things as he did,” the witness said.

When the defence said that he did not make these accusations in his previous statements, Subotic said that he was anxious because he could see the indictee at the hearing, but insisted that he had said the same thing previously.

The trial is due to continue on March 11.