Witness Describes Detainment and Abuse by Muradif Salkic

Nedeljko Stankovic told the cantonal court in Tuzla that he was arrested in Mramor on July 4, 1992, when a civilian car intercepted him. He said that four men in military uniforms came out of the car. According to Stankovic, he was taken to the Kozlovac prison in Tuzla, and was sent to the detention unit.

“While I was in the prison in Kozlovac, they tied me to a chair. Muradif Salkic entered the room and approached me from my left side. He stabbed a knife into my thigh,” Stankovic said.

Salkic, a former member of the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, has been charged with treating detained civilian Nedeljko Stankovic in an inhumane manner on June 4, 1992.

“Although I was injured, Muradif and his brother Baja, a man called Dajdza, and some other unknown people continued to beat me for the rest of the evening, from 9pm to 2am. Muradif put a knife under my eye and ear, and told me that he would kill me and let the pigs eat me,” Stankovic recalled.

Stankovic said Stana Bozic, who used to work in his restaurant at that time, was brought to the Kozlovac prison on the same night as him.

“Stana was taken to another room. I didn’t see her for about an hour. When we met in Vienna a couple of months later, she told me that four men had raped her on that occasion,” Stankovic said.

After Stankovic received medical assistance at the Tuzla hospital that night, Faruk Meskovic and a man called Mostarac drove him to the police station in Mramor. He was then transferred to his home in Tinja in the municipality of Srebrenik.

The trial will continue on April 3.