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The protected prosecution witness codenamed A-8 told the Sarajevo court on Tuesday that in July 1992, police officers took him to their main building in Bileca, the Public Safety Station, to give a statement. But instead of taking the statement, they locked him up in a student dormitory in the town the next day.
There were around 70 to 80 prisoners , the witness said.
He said that the guards in the dormitory were policemen and reservist officers from Bileca.
Former Bileca police commander Miroslav Duka and former police station chief Goran Vujovic are charged with organising the detention of Bosniak and Croat civilians at the police station and student dormitory in the town, where they were killed, tortured and abused prisoners from June till December 1992. Former police officer Zeljko Ilic is charged with participating in the physical and mental abuse, torture and killings of Bosniaks and Croats.
The witness said that prisoners Edin and Sabir Bajramovic were beaten during his first days in the student dormitory. He said that they told him that defendant Duka was responsible.
I think that Edins nose was broken. His ribs were creaking, the witness said.
He said that one night something was thrown into the room that made the prisoners choke.
I started suffocating, I could not stand it anymore, he said.
He managed to get to the window to get some fresh air and then saw armed men holding flashlights. He said he recognised defendant Duka among them and saw him firing his gun and hitting the lightbulb.
He agreed with the defence that his eyes were burning and that the flashlights were pointed at the dorm, but insisted he was not mistaken.
If you think that I did not see Duka, I saw him, the witness said.
The trial continues on November 18.
