Former '90s prisoners await justice in trial starting this month

Former prisoners of Pristina Prison have confessed to the torture and ill-treatment they suffered during the war at the hands of the former prison director, Lubomir Çimburović, and two guards, Predrag Bradić and Milivoje Ivić. An indictment has been filed against all three and their trial in absentia will begin this month.

Within these spaces of this prison, which has now been transformed into a museum, every time he enters there, Bislim Zogaj says that painful memories come back to him.

He recalls the torture that, according to him, began on February 1, 1997 by Serbian forces, a period that left deep marks on him.

"The thing that left me the most scars or made it the hardest was when they hit me on the fingers, all my nails fell off. I had a hard time with hygiene, food, and everything," Zogaj says.

Of all the things Zogaj experienced during his time in Pristina Prison, he says the most difficult was meeting his parents.

"From all the torture I experienced here, my whole body was bruised and during a visit I saw that there were bars in the middle at the entrance and it was a form of a net, the wires are a little sparser and it was possible to see the figure better. I saw that my father was trying to see my face, but I used a strategy and stood on my toes so that my face could not be seen, fortunately I had succeeded because my parent had not seen the injuries, because the lawyer had told me that Bislimi was fine and it was not torture," he says.

Regarding the torture in Pristina Prison, Zogaj says that the prison director, Lubomir Çimborović, and the two guards, Predrag Bradić and Milivoje Ivić, were aware of it, for whom a trial in absentia will begin this month.

"With the knowledge of Luba Çimborović, we were tortured and the torture lasted about 1 and a half hours without stopping at the will of Bradić, who for no reason took me out of the room and onto the second floor, the five workers of that shift tortured me for 1 and a half hours and I lost consciousness. After I regained consciousness, they threw water on me, I regained consciousness and then the torture continued again", confessed Zogaj, who has also experienced other tortures in other prisons in Kosovo and Serbia. He is one of the survivors of the massacre in Dubrava Prison.

Ramadan Nishor says he still feels the suffering he was caused at that time when he remembers it.

"We had very little bread, we were mistreated nonstop, and what's worse, right at that time when they were taking away the little bits of food they gave us, they were kicking and beating someone in the corridor, so much so that you couldn't even eat that bread because of his screams. We were mistreated nonstop," Nishori said.

Nishori says they also experienced numerous mistreatments when they were transferred to other prisons.

"They transferred us from Pristina Prison to Lipjan Prison, and especially when they transferred us, it was a black day for us, because there was nothing to see of our bodies but mourning. They even showered us with flowers."

In addition to the trial in absentia for the three defendants in Pristina Prison, this month, a trial in absentia will also begin for three other defendants for war crimes in the Municipality of Gjilan.

Trials in absentia were made possible after amendments were made to the Code of Criminal Procedure.