Horror

On March 5 last year, the police in Belgrade accused Dusan Lukic from Velika Mostanica of attempted car theft, arrested and killed him (he died of internal injuries due to a beating). Naturally, the police are keeping quiet about that and other similar cases. Lukic's family filed criminal charges against Goran Jaksic, head of the city police 2nd department, Januz Januzi (city police), inspector Markovic and four other police officers whose identities will be established during the investigation. The investigating judge at Belgrade's district court has been asking for a report and photographs of Lukic's death since last April. Police officials didn't even comment upon the requests. A few days ago the coroners report finally arrived as well as documents, copies of medial documents, x-rays and photographs. The Lukic family's lawyer hopes the district prosecutor will launch criminal proceedings against the police officers.

Lukic was arrested by inspector Markovic. The alleged abuse began as soon as he was arrested and continued in the police station. We don't know his exact condition when he was transferred to the police 2nd department but after two days and nights in the police holding cells he was taken to the Belgrade clinical center in a serious condition. He died there 17 days later on March 24. But while he was in the hospital he told his wife everything that happened in the police cells and named a few of his tormentors. Especially Januz Januzi. The coroner's report helps reconstruct what happened to Lukic during those two days. A photo of him taken in the hospital while he was still alive shows that his entire body was one big blue bruise. Coroners concluded that "Dusan Lukic's death was violent and came after the bruising of both sides of his brain, squashed lungs with two ribs broken on the left side, bruising of the coronary muscle, spleen, both kidneys and muscles as a result of multiple blows with a blunt instrument". The report said the injuries "were certainly caused by a long mechanical object such as a stick, baseball bat or baton". It does not exclude fists, elbows, feet.

So Lukic underwent the third degree while he was in the police station, which includes chaining the victim to a radiator to prevent him from even trying to cover any part of his body. The coroners said the blows were inflicted through thick clothing or body armor. Some coroners said that is the worst way to die slowly.

Before he died, Lukic told his wife that the police made him put on body armor and then beat him with baseball bats. Some people say the police were experimenting to see how long a man can take that kind of beating with no marks showing. Naturally, no doctor could say the injuries were caused by a beating if there are no visible signs which means that any proceedings against the people who inflicted the injuries would be impossible.