Local Justice – Trninic: Natural Death

Zoran Sijak, former crime inspector with the Police Station in Gradiska, told the Court that he was informed about the death of one person in Rovine in August 1993, adding that he conducted an inspection along with an investigative judge and doctor.

“When we arrived, local residents told us that Purivatra was drunk and lied on the trunk road. They said that they carried him back to his house, adding that police had to intervene too. The doctor and technician examined the body for a long time before they determined that Purivatra died a natural death,” Sijak said.

Sijak pointed out that, on that day he took a statement from Purivatra’s wife Kadira, who told him that he used to drink and had some mental problems. “Also, his wife said that police beat him up,” Sijak said.

The Banja Luka District Prosecution charges Milan Trninic, former member of the police forces in Gradiska, with having come to Husein Purivatra’s house in Rovine, near Gradiska on August 6, 1993 and beat him up. Husein died due to injuries one day later.

Second Defence witness Zdenka Vukelic said that she lived in the vicinity of the Purivatra family in 1993, but she could not remember what happened on that day, when Husein Purivatra died.

“When I came home on that day, policemen had already been there. Somebody told me that Purivatra had went out a few times and lied on the road, so the police had to intervene and take him back home,” Vukelic said.

Witness Vukelic told the Court that Kadira Purivatra told the police that she was afraid. “Trninic and another policeman came to my place. We had coffee in front of my house. Then they went to Purivatra’s house. I do not know what happened afterwords,” Vukelic said.

At this hearing Branko Mitrovic, Prosecutor with the Banja Luka District Prosecution, read a statement given by indictee Trninic and Husein Purivatra’s daughter Vladejeta Tabakovic, which they gave during the investigation.

In that statement Trninic said that he was informed, in August 1993, that someone was disturbing the public order and peace, so he went to that place with a colleague of his in order to conduct an inspection.

On that occasion Trninic said that policemen tried to arrest Purivatra, but he resisted. He said that he was visibly drunk, so they gave up and left the location.

During the course of the examination conducted on May 20 last year Vladejeta Tabakovic said that her father died due to injuries after having been beaten up.

“The doctor’s report is not true. The report says that my father died a natural death. I was not present in the house when it happened, because I lived with my husband at the time. I found out that my father had died one day later. When I came home, his body was on the bed. His head was covered with a canvas,” Tabakovic said in her statement, adding that she saw “bruises and scratches” on his body.

The trial is due to continue on October 26.