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Purak recalled having been wounded in combats a few days after the breakout of the conflict between the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina, ABiH, and Croatian Defence Council, HVO. After having surrendered, he was taken to a school building in Zepce.
“I was severely injured. My right arm was smashed by bursting bullets, but the physician was not able to help me much. I stayed there for 58 days. During that time my wounds were dressed only four times. The physician once tried to evacuate me so I could undergo medical treatment, but HVO soldiers stopped her, and beat her and the ambulance driver up for having tried to help me,” Purak said.
According to Purak’s testimony, Perica Adzic and a man named Veljko, whom he knew very well, once came to the maths classroom, where he was held, and mistreated prisoner Jasmin Malicbegovic.
“Then they approached Nazim Grabus, who was wounded most severely. Adzic broke his infusion bottle with a pistol, put the pistol on his stomach and asked him if he wanted him to shoot. Nazim begged him to kill him, because he was in pain. A rooster sound could be heard outside, so Adzic opened the window, shot at the rooster and turned towards me. He put the pistol into my mouth and asked: ‘Where do you want to be shot?’ He then put the pistol on the right side of my neck and fired a bullet,” Purak said.
Purak told the Court that the bullet penetrated through his neck and that, as he was going out, Adzic told the physician that she had another patient.
“The physician and nurse put bandage to the wound and said that they did not know what to do, because the injury was close to the artery. This happened in mid-July. I was exchanged in mid-August. I did not see Adzic again during the war. I heard that he was wounded after that,” the witness said, adding that he met the indictee after the war and that he told him that he was somewhat drunk when he wounded him.
Perica Adzic, former member of the Croatian Defence Council, HVO, is charged with having participated in the mistreatment of prisoners of war who were held in a school classroom in Zepce in July 1993.
Mijo Dragun, former guard in the school building in Zepce, testified at this hearing as well. He said that he sometimes had a uniform and a gun, but it was not clear to him whom and what he was guarding.
“I remember that two soldiers entered the building through a window one day. I do not know what they did inside. A physician ran out, crying, but she did not want to tell me what happened. Later on I found out that Purko was shot and wounded. I reported the soldiers’ visit to my superior officer,” Dragun said.
The trial is due to continue on April 29.
