Local Justice – Krkalic: Beating during Interrogation
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Witness Branislav Ristic said that the indictee interrogated him in the LM restaurant in Jelah, which was at that time used by the police.
When they took me into the room, Krkalic handcuffed my hands behind my back to the back of the chair. He politely asked me for some bombs and weapons. I was gripped by fear and I did not know what to answer because I did not know anything about it, said Ristic.
After that, as he added, the indictee took a police baton and began to beat him on the thighs and shoulders.
I cried and I asked him why he beat me. He then briefly went out and when he returned he told me that Marinko confessed everything and started to beat me with the baton again. I was then 21 years old and weighed 55 kilograms. What bad could I have done anybody then? I thought whether I would manage to stay alive, said Ristic.
Witness Marinko Ristic recalled how Krkalic interrogated him in the House of Culture.
He immediately slapped me. He said that Brano is also there and that he confessed everything. He was looking for some bombs. I said what I have said before, that the weapons were handed over. Then he hit me with a clenched fist in the stomach and pushed my forehead so that three or four times I hit my head against the wall, recalls Ristic.
The indictment alleges that Krkalic, a retired police officer from Tesanj, was extorting confessions for the possession of illegal weapons from three Serb civilians by beating them in July 1992.
The witnesses said that Krkalic told them to report themselves to the police tomorrow and to bring bombs, and when they appeared without weapons, because, as they said, they did not have it, one uniformed person in front of the police building told them to go home.
Answering the questions of the Defence regarding the differences in testimony earlier given to the State Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA) and before the Court, witness Ristic said that he could not remember everything.
Witnesses Tihomir and Dragica Ristic failed to appear in the courtroom because of health reasons. The Prosecution suggested the reading of their evidence statements to which the Defence objected because they are contradictory in the most important facts, so the Prosecution gave up in the case of these two witnesses.
By presenting the evidence by which it is confirmed that Krkalic was a member of the police, the Prosecution finished presenting its evidence.
The Defence said that it will call eight witnesses during the evidence procedure, while the continuation of the trial is scheduled for April 16, 2012.Dz.S.
