Indictment Filed Against Police Officers for Beating a 14-Year-Old Boy from Osmaci

(Patria) - The District Public Prosecutor's Office in Bijeljina has filed an indictment against four police officers from Osmaci on suspicion of committing the criminal offense of "violation of human dignity through abuse of official position or authority," Detektor reports.

The District Public Prosecutor's Office in Bijeljina stated that, until the indictment is confirmed, they cannot disclose which officers are involved.

Juso Jusić, the father of the beaten boy Ajdin, says these are the officers his son identified in September last year.

- A lot of time has passed. The important thing is that this has started, that the process is moving forward. We feel a bit better now.

Ajdin is still undergoing treatment, takes pills every morning, and doesn't feel well yet. He only goes to school three days a week - says Jusić.

Recall, at the end of August last year in Osmaci, near Zvornik, fourteen-year-old Ajdin Jusić was beaten.

He was interrogated at the local police station, without the presence of his father or a lawyer, by officers who then beat him.

While they were questioning him in one room, Juso thought his son was in the hallway. He was told that they would first interrogate him, and then Ajdin. In the meantime, the officers took Ajdin into another room.

- At that moment, I heard Ajdin screaming, shouting: 'I can't confess to what I don't know.' And I heard the child crying, shouting: 'Don't touch me,' and then the crying stopped - Jusić recalls.

Ajdin told Detektor journalists that the officers twisted his fingers and handcuffed him, demanding he tell them who had been robbing houses in the village.

The officers did not allow his father to go into the hallway. When he managed to get out, he found the officers holding Ajdin by the arm, pressed against the wall.

He asked them why they had interrogated Ajdin without a parent present, but says he received rude responses to move away.

The officers drove Ajdin to the front of the house and left him there unconscious, his father Juso previously recounted, who reported the officers to internal affairs, and a day later to the District Public Prosecutor's Office in Bijeljina.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republika Srpska stated in a press release that they received a report of illegal conduct during the taking of a statement from a minor and that they informed the Prosecutor's Office in Bijeljina about everything.

The officers were suspended, but it is not yet known whether they have been disciplined.

Earlier research by Detektor showed that many cases of police violence, which disturbed the public in Bosnia and Herzegovina, went unpunished or long-running proceedings are still ongoing.