Defense Experts Say Phones Could Not Cause Serious Harm

“The current intensity is too small to cause major damage to the human body through which it passes,” expert witness Mladen Ajdar said.

Prosecution witnesses in the trial of Vujovic, chief of the public safety station in Bileca, Miroslav Duka, police station commander, and policeman Zeljko Ilic, said they were tortured with electric shocks from administered from phones. The defendants are charged with abusing Bosniak and Croat civilians in Bileca in 1992.
 
Ajdar said the shocks could cause prickling, light pain, redness, burns, light arm cramps and minor breathing difficulties.

When asked by trial chamber chairwoman Minka Kreho whether misuse of such phones could cause blood to pour from the nose, Ajdar said it was possible, but that every person is different.

“If somebody has hypertension, blood begins pouring out of their nose first,” Ajdar said, noting that the duration of the exposure would be a determining factor.

Ajdar prepared his findings with electrical expert Djuro Zmijanjac.

“Electricity from an inductor can range from 15 to 30 milliamperes, so it cannot cause severe injuries or death,” Zmijanjac concluded.

Zmijanjac said a series of factors affected how serious an electrical shock could be, such as voltage, skin wetness and duration of exposure. The phones, which were the subject of this examination, according to Zmijanjac, could discharge 100 volts, which is a dangerous voltage.

The trial will continue on January 11.