Witness Claims No Abuse Occurred in Musala Prison at Gakic and Zilic Trial

Esad Gakic and Ramo Zilic have been charged with the inhumane treatment of Croat and Serb civilians who were detained on the premises of the Musala school in Konjic. They allegedly caused severe suffering and injury to the detainees in 1993 and 1994.

Esad Muhibic told the cantonal court of Mostar that he was the manager of the prison from October 1993 to April 1994.

“Captured members of the Bosnian Army were detained in the basement, while prisoners of war were held on the first floor. The prison’s security system had to be rather strict…I can say that not a single incident happened in the prison during my term as prison manager,” Muhibic said.

Muhibic said there was a reception desk at the prison entrance and nobody could enter the prison without his knowledge.

“Only those who had my permission or a court order could enter the prison,” Muhibic said. He said the prisoners of war who were held in the prison at the time were Serbs.

He said those prisoners were exchanged in October 1994, when he was the security commander, tasked with ensuring the security of the prisoners and the locations from which they were supposed to be collected.

“We arrived some time after midnight. They passed by me and went out through the side door. I am 100 percent sure there were no visible injuries on them,” Muhibic said.

Muhibic said he knew Esad Gakic ever since he joined the military police in 1992. He said he couldn’t remember if he ever went to the Musala prison while he was the prison manager.

Muhibic said Zilic wasn’t a military police officer, but a member of “territorial structures.”

“While I was in Musala, only members of the military police were there. I don’t know if Zilic went to Musala after I left,”Muhibic said.

A statement given by a prosecution witness named Radovan Djordjic was read at this hearing. In the statement, Djordjic said he was detained in the Musala facility from mid-November 1992 to October 5, 1994.

“I remember that Dragan Kuljanin was beaten up right before the exchange. A guard named Esad Gakic mentally and physically mistreated him. He punched him, slapped him and kicked him all over his body,” Djordjic said.

Djordjic specified that Kuljanin was beaten in the corridor in front of the locker room. He said he saw him being beaten from an immediate distance, because the door was open.

“After the beating Dragan Kuljanin looked very bad. He had several contusions on his back, groins, chest, nape and neck,” Djordjic said in his statement.

The trial will continue on October 28.