Hit with a Big Military Boot

Witness Senad Turbo told the District Court in Eastern Sarajevo that, in May 1992 he was detained in Kula, along with other non-Serb neighbours from Dobrinja, Sarajevo.

 

He said that a soldier with a knife mentally mistreated them in the Kula yard and that another one then mistreated them, threatening them with a rifle.

 

“At that moment a big man dressed in a camouflage uniform, with a bullet-proof vest and big military boots came. He weighed about 120 or 130 kilograms. He did not have a cap. He said that we could get up, as we had been lying facing the ground. He told us we could light a cigarette if we had one,” Turbo said.

 

He found out later on that the man’s name was Luka Majstorovic. The witness recognised him in the courtroom.

 

Turbo said that he was detained, along with 30 neighbours, in a cell with sixteen beds and that they first received food on the after having been brought to that place. He pointed out that a guard named Novo, who escorted him to locations where he performed labour, treated him in a correct manner. 

The witness said that, on May 17, 1992 a Bozo Lekic came to the cell and ordered that all those, who had anything to do with weapons, came out and said that.    

 

Turbo said that he registered, because he was a member of the reserve police forces and that he was then taken to the kitchen, where Luka Majstorovic came as well soon after that.

 

“Bozo told him that I was a member of the police. Luka Majstorovic then said: ‘So, you shot at our soldiers’. Then they began beating me,” Turbo said, adding that Bozo beat him with his hands and Luka with his legs, wearing “big military boots”. 

The witness said that he defecated out of fear and pain and that his body became blue. Also, he said that blood began pouring over his face and he became disoriented from time-to-time. Also, he lost eyesight temporarily.  

 

He mentioned that Majstorovic left the room and that Bozo continued examining him and beating him with a cable.

 

“Those beatings were so strong that they would cut oak bark,” the witness recalled.

 

The indictment alleges that Majstorovic, a former investigator, treated a Bosniak civilian in Kula Penal and Correctional Facility in an inhumane manner, deliberately causing bodily pain and suffering of that person. During the war Majstorovic was an operational officer with the Crime Service of the Public Safety Station in Novo Sarajevo.

 

Witness Turbo said that he was transported by truck, along with several other prisoners, from Dobrinja and Kotorac via Vraca to Vrbanja bridge in Sarajevo and released.  

 

He said that, on the following day he went to the Military Hospital for an examination and that he did not suffer any significant health consequences, except for deformation of the nose bone.

 

“I survived. I am in a normal condition. I am a realistic person. We should forget and forgive, because we should continue with our lives,” Turbo said. 

The trial is due to continue on October 23.