Jury selection began Tuesday at Chattanooga Federal Court in a case in which an East Ridfge man is charged with torturing prisoners during the civil war in Bosnia three decades ago.
Judge Charles Atchley is conducting the trial in which Sead Miljkovic is charged with three counts of inflicting torture on prisoners under his supervision. He is also charged in a three-count indictment with passport fraud for allegedly making false statements relating to his true name and date of birth.
If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison on each count.
The indictment says Miljkovic, aka Sead Dukic, was allegedly a member of the Obezbjedenje objekata i lica (OBL), a police force of the so-called Autonomous Province of Western Bosnia (APZB).
The OBL was responsible for guarding APZB headquarters at the Old Fort, a castle overlooking the town of Velika Kladuša, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Between December 1994 and August 1995, soldiers of the former Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina who had been captured in fighting against APZB armed forces were transported from detention camps to perform forced labor at the Old Fort under Miljkovic’s and other OBL members’ supervision and control, it was stated.
“Sead Miljkovic allegedly tortured prisoners and then decades later lied about his identity to obtain a U.S. passport,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division at the time of the indictment. “Neither the passage of time nor a defendant’s concealment efforts will prevent us from bringing human rights violators to justice and ensuring that perpetrators of torture cannot seek refuge in the United States.”
“The superseding indictment’s torture charges are serious human rights abuses that cannot go unpunished,” said U.S. Attorney Francis M. Hamilton III for the Eastern District of Tennessee. “We thank our investigative partners on this case for their outstanding efforts to gather evidence required for these charges.”
Miljkovic and other OBL members allegedly inflicted severe and sustained beatings on the prisoners, using a metal pipe, rifle butt, and shovel handle, causing the victims to lose consciousness or suffer other injuries.
Miljkovic and other OBL members also allegedly threatened prisoners with death, intentionally withheld water even while forcing the prisoners to perform hard physical labor, forced the prisoners to fight one another, and pushed one victim’s head down on a knife or bayonet as if to impale his throat on the blade.
HSI Chattanooga investigated the case, with support from HSI Vienna, HSI Newark, and HSI’s Human Rights Violators and War Crimes Center, and assistance from the Department of State’s Diplomatic Security Service Houston Field Office, Chattanooga Police Department Special Victims Unit, Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office, and Tennessee Highway Patrol. The Justice Department thanks the Ministry of Justice of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the United Nations International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals, which were instrumental in furthering the investigation.
Trial Attorneys Elizabeth Nielsen and Chelsea Schinnour of the Criminal Division’s Human Rights and Special Prosecution Section (HRSP) and Assistant U.S. Attorney Jay Woods for the Eastern District of Tennessee are prosecuting the case, with assistance from HSRP historians. The Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs also provided assistance.
Prosecutor Woods told potential jurors that Miljkovic "came here under a false identity."
He said the charges related to "committing torture during a civil war. We all know terrible things happen in wartime. Does anybody believe war should have no rules?"
One potential juror said he had taken part in two wars and had been involved in the capture of prisoners. He said they were treated humanely.
Prosecutor Woods said one government witness would be called to give details about the civil war in Bosnia.
There is an interpreter for Miljkovic, and one will also be furnished many of the witnesses, who have been brought from Bosnia to Chattanooga.
The defendant is represented by attorneys Bryan Hoss and Logan Davis.