Vojkan Zivkovic was captured in 1992 as a member of the 9th Knin Corps of the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA), which was then under the command of Ratko Mladic, and was held in Lora from 3 to 10 March 1992.
Zivkovic said he had been detained in several military prisons in Croatia, but that he "will never forget the seven days of hell in Lora" where he said he had been subjected to "cruel torture and ill-treatment".
The witness said his interrogators had run electricity through him and put pieces of wire through his ear-lobes. He mentioned an occasion when he was taken out of prison and into a basement where he was beaten with a baseball bat by a four-year-old child.
Zivkovic said that he had been beaten the most by a police officer nicknamed Boxer. Asked by the prosecutor if he could recognise any of his tormentors among the accused, the witness pointed his finger at Davor Banic. He said that Banic had also been known as Boxer. According to Zivkovic, Banic beat him round the clock every day and would show him a scar on his hand shouting "look what you have done to me."
Presiding Judge Spomenka Tonkovic then asked the accused Banic to show his hands to see if he had a scar Zivkovic could recognise him by. Judges, however, were unable to ascertain whether a small mark on Banic's left hand was the result of an injury or not.
Zivkovic also recognised the accused Tonci Vrkic, former deputy commander of the Lora prison, saying that Vrkic had also beaten him, "but not so much as Banic did."
The witness confirmed that he used to be a member of the JNA 9th Knin Corps and that in 1992 he was sentenced to 22 years in prison for hostile activity against the Republic of Croatia. He did not serve the sentence because soon after that he was exchanged.
Asked by the defence if he had appealed against the court judgement, Zivkovic said that he could not, because he had had his fingers broken in Lora.
The defence asked the trial chamber to dismiss Zivkovic as a non-credible witness in view of the fact that he had served in a hostile army and had been sentenced to a long prison term for hostile activity against the state. Judges rejected the motion, allowing the witness to testify.
A former junior officer of the JNA also testified about his time in detention in Lora from April to August 1992.
Velibor Tomovic said he had been beaten and abused in various ways on a daily basis. He spoke about the ill-treatment of Serb reservists from the southeastern Bosnian town of Trebinje in the prison's C Block. He said that Croatian military policemen would order prisoners to crawl into a dog-house, and added that he heard from other inmates that police officers had thrown a member of the Serb paramilitary unit "The White Eagles" out of a window "to check if he could fly."
Neither Tomovic nor Zivkovic have heard of Gojko Bulovic and Nenad Knezevic, two civilians with whose death the accused are charged.
The hearing was held amidst tight security, with a large number of members of the public and representatives of non-governmental organisations attending. The witnesses were brought to the courtroom through a tunnel linking the court house with the police headquarters.
The hearing of the witnesses from Serbia and Montenegro continues on Tuesday.