A Bosnian man testified in Chattanooga Federal Court on Wednesday that Sead Miljkovic tortured him during a civil war in their home country three decades ago.
Emir Pehlic said Miljkovic, who came to the U.S. in 1999 and has been living in East Ridge under an assumed last name, beat him with the butt of a rifle and later pushed his head down on a fixed bayonet.
Miljkovic was a member of the security force of the Autonomous Province of Western Bosnia (APZB) that was engaged in a brother-against-brother, neighbor-against-neighbor civil conflict.
Pehlic said the incidents happened at the Stari Grad medieval castle overlooking the town of Velika Kladuša after Pehlic was captured on March 18, 1995.
The witness said he was taken to an improvised prison in an old agricultural metal building with a concrete floor and was immediately beaten there, leaving a scar on his lip. He said he was given over 100 lashes with a baton and had bruises all over his body. He said the captives had to run through a "cordon" of guards, where they were repeatedly struck.
He said prisoners had to sleep on the concrete floor or wooden pallets in freezing weather and only got one meal a day.
He said he was imprisoned in two different locations, and guards took him and other inmates to Stari Grad on work details during the day.
At the old fort he spotted Miljkovic as a supervising guard. He said, "I felt relief because I thought he was going to help me" noting they were old school mates. He said, instead, "My blackest thoughts were coming true."
He said Miljkovic caught him talking with a guard, who he said had asked him questions about himself. He said Miljkovic grabbed the guard's rifle and began beating him (Pehlic) with it.
Pehlic said on a later occasion he was taken to a small house by Miljkovic and two guards. He said at the time, "My thought was that I never was going to see my little daughter again."
He said one guard bent him over a wooden chair and began striking him in the shoulders, chest and head with a heavy object. He said, "All of them were laughing."
The witness told the local jury that one of the guards put a fixed bayonet on the chair, and Miljkovic forced his head down on the point of the blade. Attorney Bryan Hoss noted that Pehlic had not mentioned the bayonet incident in earlier reports and in a 2023 version said Miljkovic just stood off to the side and did not intervene. Pehlic said he now remembers that he could see the two guards out of the corner of his eye, so it must have been Miljkovic holding him down.
Pehlic denied that he was making the charges to get compensation. He said, "You could not pay me enough for what I went through."
He said he came 5,600 miles to testify "so this offense never, ever happens to anybody else."
Nijaz Suljanovic said he was captured around the same time as Pehlic and was with him at the various internment camps. He also went on the work details to Stari Grad. He said he noticed that several of the guards were from his hometown and were former classmates.
He said the Stari Grad guards would "hit each one of us on the hands" with wooden sticks and would make them lift heavy stones.
The witness said he was standing nearby when Miljkovic took the rifle from the guard and began hitting Pehlic in the back three or more times. He said Pehlic "screamed out in pain. He lost his balance and almost fell. Later, he showed me the dark bruises on his back."
Suljanovic was also nearby when Pehlic was taken into the house by Miljkovic and the two guards. He said, "I could hear the moans and the groans and the screams of pain."
Pehlic and Suljanovic were among those freed during the liberation of Aug. 7, 1995.
Ibro Nuhanovic, who is listed as the second victim, is set to testify later.