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Ekrem Ibracevic, Faruk Smajlovic and Sejdalija Covic have been charged with war crimes committed against Serb civilians in Rapatnica. Ibracevic is the former chief of military security with the municipal headquarters of the Territorial Defense. Faruk Smajlovic and Sejdalija Covic were members of the military police in the area.
At today’s hearing, witness Drago Djukic described his detention in Rapatnica, detailing the abuse inflicted upon him by the defendants and other officials during his detainment. He said during one night of his detention, he was taken out to a hall. He said military police burned him with a soldetron (a welding tool), pushed needles beneath his nails and forced him to eat salt from a glass.
“There were six of them. Two had caps on and wore fingerless gloves…A black-haired man in a military police uniform told Zurahid Mujcinovic to bring a soldetron, and they started burning me,” Djukic said. He showed the courtroom scars on his chest and back.
He said Zurahid Mujcinovic pushed a needle underneath his nails. He said he took the needle out of a big tool bag.
“He pricked me, pulled it out, pricked me, pulled it out…all eight fingers, not the thumbs…Then he picked up a tool and someone told him to put it down, to not pull my eyes out,” Djukic said, crying.
Djukic said that after having been forced to eat salt, he was given water the following day. He said that after his abuse, his brother Pero Djukic and a prisoner named Lazar Stanisic were also taken out of their cells. He said they were tortured with soldetrons and were also electrocuted.
According to Djukic, he and the other abused prisoners asked a guard to call a doctor. He said two days later, defendant Ekrem Ibracevic entered the room they were detained in.
“He came in and went out. He was in military uniform. I think this is that man,” Djukic said, pointing to Ibracevic.
Djukic said a doctor visited them seven days later, when their wounds were already infected and had begun to fester. Djukic said they were taken out and beaten the following nights. This continued for the next twenty or thirty days, until they were transferred to Tuzla.
“This guy, sitting in the second row, looks familiar…He was present when they beat us up in the hall,” Djukic said, pointing to defendant Fikret Smajlovic.
Responding to a question by the defense, Djukic said he was shown eight photographs of the defendants by the police in 2008, but didn’t identify Smajlovic at the time.
Djukc said he was 90 percent sure Ibracevic and Smajlovic were the persons he saw in Rapatnica. With regards to Zurahid Mujcinovic, who was sentenced to eight years in prison for war crimes, Djukic said he was one thousand percent sure of his involvement in the abuse that took place in Rapatnica.
Djukic told the court that former military police Ismet Imsirovic and Sinan Alic visited him at his home a few years ago. According to Djukic, they told him that Mujcinovic didn’t torture him and asked him to withdraw a statement he had made against him.
“When I refused to do so, Ismet gave me a list of persons responsible for Rapatnica. He told me that Ekrem was on the upper floor every night we were tortured and beaten…Imsirevic told me that Sinan could help me, as he was an influential man,” Djukic said.
The trial will continue on May 12.
