Beaten in Police Premises for Three Hours

State Prosecutor Miroslav Janjic read a statement by witness Marko Mitric, who, as determined earlier, was not able to testify due to the trauma he had experienced.

In his statement given to the State Investigation and Protection Agency, SIPA, in December 2007 Mitric mentioned that two members of the Croatian Defence Council, HVO, captured him in Bosanski Brod in May 1992 and took him to Slavonski Brod, the Republic of Croatia, where he was examined about weapons.

A short time later the witness was taken to the police building in Bosanski Brod, where, as he said, HVO members beaten him up for more than three hours.

“Luka Jozic continued hitting me until I fainted,” Mitric said, adding that a woman named Indira Vrbanja issued a paper to him in the police building, confirming that his personal belongings were confiscated.

As he said in his statement, at the beginning of June 1992 the witness was transferred to the District Prison in Tulek, Bosanski Brod municipality, where he stood a trial.

Mitric said that he was tried by Indira Vrbanjac and that he was sentenced to one year in prison, but he did not specify why.

This statement was read at the trial of Indira Kameric, who is not indicted for having tried anyone. According to the State Prosecution’s charges, Kameric, a former member of the 101st Bosanski Brod Brigade of HVO, participated in physical and mental torture, as well as inhumane treatment of Serb and Bosniak civilians and prisoners of war in the police premises and at “Polet” stadium in Bosanski Brod from April to October 1992.

Among other things, Kameric is charged with having physically and mentally abused Marko Mitric in the police station premises in Bosanski Brod, by ordering him to take his clothes off and beginning to beat and mistreat him, while he was naked.

In his statement the witness said that two men sexually abused him in a prison in Tulek. Besides him, other men and women were sexually abused as well, as indicated by the witness.

“The detainees were forced to rape women, who were detained in the building. In case a detainee refused to rape female detainees, he would be beaten up. Each of them refused to do it and was beaten up,” Mitric said.

The witness was then taken from Tulek prison to Slavonski Brod and then to Orasje, where he was exchanged in November 1992.

The continuation of the trial is scheduled for September 4.