Beating and Disappearance of Prisoners

Jelica Matanovic, wife of the late Jozo Matanovic, said that her husband was taken out of their apartment in the afternoon on June 4, 1992 and that, according to her findings, he was killed that same night.

“He was killed in a very cruel way. He was hit with shovels and similar tools. Those, who saw him, were shocked.  

Some people from Kotorsko and Putnikovo Brdo were held in that cell. I think that one of them was named Stipo Grgic. I cannot remember the names of persons from Kotorsko, but I can find out,” said Matanovic, who was asked by the District Prosecutor to get in touch with the eye-witnesses.

Witness Mustafa Nukicic said that he spent ten months in the District Prison in Doboj, where „Stanisa, Vuk, Radulovic, Ninkovic and his brother“, were guards.

“Some were strict. This gentleman was strict too. He did not beat me. Stanisa and Vuk did,” Nukicic said.
He spoke about the taking away of nine prisoners, who have still not been found.

“Six men were taken out of my room on May 24, 1992. My brother was among them. Three other men were taken from another room. I think that Vojin Lukic opened the door,” Nukicic said.

The witness said that, in January 1993 he heard prisoner Marko Kikic being called out. As he found out from other prisoners, the man died on the following day.
The indictment charges Ninkovic, former guard in the District Prison in Doboj, with having participated in the torture and abuse of arrested non-Serb civilians in 1992 and 1993.

Mirza Lisinovic said that, during the night on May 2, 1992 he was arrested, while he was on duty in the Safety Services Centre in Doboj, and transferred to prison, where the indictee hit him once.

“We were beaten up in the prison corridor and then taken to prison cells. I stayed in prison until May 17. In the middle of my stay in the prison Ninkovic hit me on the back of my head with his fist in the prison corridor. I fell down, because I had already been beaten up,” Lisinovic said.

Murat Husakovic said that, as „so many years have passed“, he could not remember who the guards in the Doboj prison were, while witness Amer Pier said that he did not see the indictee in the prison.  

The trial is due to continue on October 23.