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“They beat you like animals. That's it. It's not human anymore.”

Date & Time 2020-10-10
Location Petrinja Bus Station, Croatia
Reported by No Name Kitchen
Coordinates 45.1911155, 15.7673136
Pushback from Croatia
Pushback to Bosnia
Taken to a police station yes
Minors involved no
WLTI* involved no
Men involved yes
Age 20 - 32
Group size 3
Countries of origin Algeria
Treatment at police station or other place of detention personal information taken, papers signed, no translator present
Overall number of policemen and policewomen involved 10
Violence used beating (with batons/hands/other), kicking, insulting, forcing to undress, destruction of personal belongings, theft of personal belongings
Police involved 2 Croatian police officers in civil, 8 Croatian police officers with black ski masks

On October 9th, three Algerian men, 30, 32 and 20 years old, were apprehended at around 8:00 p.m. by two Croatian authorities in civil uniforms. They were at the bus station of Petrinja [where they just bought tickets for a bus to Zagreb]. Only a few minutes after getting onto the parked bus, the two officers made a passport control. Because of their missing papers, the men had to leave the bus immediately. Together with the two police officers, they drove to the nearby police station of Petrinja [Ul. Ivana Mažuranića 5A, 44250, Petrinja; coordinates: 45.441167, 16.285458].

At this station, the men were interrogated individually. Their personal information was noted, and they also had to sign a form, which the respondent claims not to know what it was about. “They tell you to sign it, and you sign.”

Immediately afterwards, the three men were put into a van. Before they got in, they had to give their cell phones to the officers from Petrinia, who then drove them to the Bosnian-Croatian border near Velika Kladusa.

At the place where they stopped, around 11:00 pm, the three men were expected by “about 8 policemen” wearing light blue Croatian police uniforms and had black balaclavas covering their faces.

Individually, the three men had to leave the van one after another and undress completely. They also had to hand over their valuables and their money to one of the police officers. One by one they were then forced to get down on their knees and were then struck by several police officers surrounding them, while being completely naked. They were struck “with everything that is possible, batons, hands, feet.” The respondent also claimed that the police officers were making fun of him, while they were beating him.

“They beat you like animals. That’s it. It’s not human anymore.”

While being beaten, the respondent lost his implant denture (see photo), when a policeman rammed his knee into his face. He also claims to have had several bruises and welts, especially on his back and upper body due to the strikes. The respondent stated that the duration of the individual beating felt like 20 minutes. Afterwards the men were allowed to put their boxers back on, shoes and remaining clothes were piled up and burned.

The respondent’s dentures, which he described having dislodged by the blow from an officers knee to his head