Under Nikola Maric’s Protection

Witness Sefik Munikoza said that he was captured, along with several other men from Skrobucani village, Prozor municipality, on the road between Jablanica and Prozor in late November 1992 and taken to the Fire Brigade house. He said that he had not known indictee Nikola Maric before, but Dzevad Purgic, Maric’s neighbour, told him his name.

“Nikola Maric hit me all over my body. I was unconscious most of the time. He hit me on my head, ears and neck with an electric stick,” Munikoza recalled.

He said that a Dragan Zecevic and Goran Pavkovic participated in the beating of detainees.

According to the witness, he was released, together with the other men, after having been examined and beaten up the whole night. As he said, his grandfather was released in 1993. He told him that Nikola Maric took his money and beat him.

Nikola Maric, former member of the Croatian Defence Council, HVO, is charged in 25 counts with having participated in murders, torture and other inhumane acts in Prozor municipality from November 1992 to October 1993.

Witness Muharem Sljivo said that he was detained in the Fire Brigade house, along with other men, including witness Sefik Munikoza. He said that all of them were taken out for examination and that they had bruises and other injuries upon return, but nobody beat him and “I was privileged, because Maric protected me”.

“Everybody mentioned that Nikola Maric was commander and that he had a leading role in beating and examining, but he personally never hit me,” the witness said. He said that Maric released him from the Fire Brigade house.

Sljivo mentioned that he saw Maric again in Skrobucani on April 14, 1993 and that he protected him on that occasion as well. According to Sljivo’s testimony, on that day HVO soldiers attacked Skrobucani and other villages and forcedly detained him and other men in the Police Station in Prozor, where he stayed for about 20 days, before being transferred to other detention camps.

The trial is due to continue on November 20.