Monika Ilic's Trial: Torture with Broken Bottle

Testifying before the Basic Court of Brcko District, witness Marko Margic said that he was brought to the Luka prison on June 11, 1992, and that, after having refused to perform mandatory work activities, he was taken from the hangar, where the prisoners were kept, to a nearby office.

“Monika was sitting in the office. She had a broken bottle in her hand. She began scarping my hands with it, but she did not make cuts. It seemed to me that she was drunk,” Margic said.

Witness Ramiza Fetahovic told the court that she was taken from the Brcko hospital, where she worked as nurse, to the Luka detention camp. She said that the indictee mistreated a detainee, whom they called Ado.

“I saw Monika standing above him and hitting him on his palms with a broken bottle, while he was lying on the floor. Later on one of the soldiers brought some salt, which they poured over his hands. Ado was screaming, while they laughed,” Fetahovic said.

The indictment, which contains eight counts, charges Monika Karan-Ilic, a Bosnian Serb, with torturing, treating in an inhumane manner and mentally abusing Bosniaks in the Luka concentration camp and the police station in Brcko from the beginning of May to July 10, 1992.

Sabahudin Islamovic testified that he used to see Karan-Ilic often during his two-month long imprisonment.

“Other detainees told me that she did all kinds of things. She would sometimes enter the hangar, where we were held, and curse us,” Islamovic said.

According to Islamovic, one of the prisoners, Amir Didic , was beaten up more than anybody else to the extent it was “almost impossible to recognize his face”.

“Monika came to the hangar once, kicked the sponge with which Amir was covered and asked him: “How come that you are still alive?’,” Islamovic said, adding that all detainees were tortured and abused in the offices close to the hangar.

Witness Sefik Hasanovic also confirmed that Amir Didic was beaten up more than anybody else and that he told them that the indictee and other soldiers hit him.

“He once even asked other detainees to help him kill himself, as he could no longer bear the pain,” the witness said.

He said that Karan-Ilic once came to the hangar, holding a revolver and bag, and told them to take everything out of their pockets, saying that “it was not a robbery, but a contributory donation for the Serbian Army”.

“She took all of my documents away. I was particularly sad, because she tore a picture of my daughter, saying that I would no longer need it,” Hasanovic said.

The trial is due to continue on September 3.