This post is also available in:
Miroslav Duka, the former police commander of Bileca, Goran Vujovic, the former chief of the public safety station in Bileca, and Zeljko Ilic, a former police officer, have all been charged with war crimes in Bileca.
Vujovic and Duka have been charged with enabling and organizing the detention of Bosniak and Croat civilians in the public safety station and student dormitory in Bileca, where detainees were killed, tortured and abused. Ilic has been charged with participating in physical and mental abuse.
Adis Avdic was the first prosecution witness to testify at today’s hearing. He was seven years old during his father’s detainment in Bileca. He said he and his grandparents brought his father food at two prisons located in Bileca. He said his father was initially detained in the student dormitory, and was later transferred to the police station in Bileca.
He said his father told him police officers had beaten him.
“He was detained all the time, until they killed him,” Avdic said. He said he found out about his father’s murder a day or two after it happened.
Responding to questions by the prosecution, Avdic said he heard about the murder from his grandparents and other close relatives. However, during cross-examination he said he heard about his father’s murder from a neighbour, while playing with other children in the neighbourhood.
“They drove the body to the hospital. We buried him later,” Avdic said. He said he noticed that his father had been beaten in prison, and that he saw bruises on his head, back, legs, and arms, presumably made by beatings with a baton.
Avdic said he had heard that a man named Duka had killed his father. He said he’d heard of Duka even before his father was imprisoned, and believed he was a member of the police forces.
In response to a question by trial chamber chairwoman Minka Kreho, Avdic said he heard about his father’s murder from the Bajramovic brothers and Ramiz Pervan, who had been detained with his father.
“I think Duka did it. He was there,” Avdic said. He said he couldn’t point to Duka and definitively say that he murdered his father.
Ahmet Camo, the second state prosecution witness to testify, said he was detained at the internal affairs secretariat and also the student dormitory in Bileca for approximately four months in 1992.
Camo said a man named Radovanovic examined him at the police station. He said he was ordered to lie down, while Radovanovic stepped on his head. Camo said blood began to pour out of his nose. Camo said he saw Duka kick a prisoner named Mehmed Murguz.
“He kicked him between 10 to 15 times in the head,” Camo said.
Camo said that after being held at the police station for three days, he was transferred to the student dormitory.
Camo said he gave a statement about the abuse he experienced to the State Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA), in the presence of his brothers. He denied that SIPA had attempted to influence his statement.
The trial will continue on May 12.
