VANCOUVER — Branko Rogan of Port Coquitlam, B.C., regularly beat and tortured Muslim political prisoners in the summer of 1992 in his hometown of Bileca in the former Yugoslavia, a Federal Court judge heard Thursday.

Sabir Bajranovic told the hearing Rogan was one of several Serbian nationalist guards who viciously and repeatedly assaulted inmates in Bileca detention centres after the Serbs took over the region.

Bajranovic described how he was tortured with electrical shocks and routinely beaten after his arrest on June 10, 1992.

He knew several of the guards, who were police officers and reservists, because they were his former friends and colleagues in Bileca before Serb extremists turned on their Muslim neighbours.

“Among those comrades and neighbours was Branko Rogan. I saw him and he was guarding us,’’ Bajranovic said, adding the Rogan carried an AK-47 assault rifle and wore an army uniform.

During their detention, each of the Muslim prisoners would be called out of their cells one by one daily by Rogan and other guards to be beaten and tortured, Bajranovic told Judge Anne MacTavish.

“Branko Rogan was one of those people who were calling people’s names and beating them and then you accepted him here in Canada,’’ Bajranovic said through an interpreter. “He would come, open the door and we were all in a state of panic because we knew what was coming.’’

Sometimes the prisoners would get glimpses of the attacks on others through openings in a makeshift window, he said.

“It was a five-minute beating or 15 minutes or 20 minutes for some people . . . they would do that until they were tired or bored,’’ Bajranovic said.

The Canadian government has revoked Rogan’s citizenship claiming he hid his role in the atrocities committed on Bosnian Muslims almost 20 years ago. Rogan, who came to Canada as a sponsored refugee in 1994, has asked the Federal Court to decide whether the loss of his citizenship is warranted by the allegations against him.

It is the first citizenship revocation in Canada related to war crimes committed after the Second World War.

Since the historic hearing opened in downtown Vancouver on Monday, Rogan has not attended to hear the testimony of his former countrymen. Nor is he represented by a lawyer.

Bajranovic showed MacTavish a tattoo put on his right ankle marking the date of his arrest. He said he was held for five months in terrible conditions without adequate food and no bathing facilities. He said when the Red Cross would check in on political prisoners, those with physical signs of abuse would be hidden so international observers would not see them.

He ended his testimony saying it was important for the people of Canada to understand who committed war crimes in the former Yugoslavia.

“I have nothing against Serbian people but what Branko Rogan, a Serb did, it is my duty to tell this to you and even if he were my brother, I would tell this to you.’’

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