INDICTMENT ISSUED FOR SMUGGLING OF MIGRANTS

The accused Ismail Faisal (2001), a citizen of Afghanistan, is charged with organized smuggling of migrants from the territory of the Republic of Serbia to Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Prosecutor of the Special Department for Organized Crime, Economic Crime and Corruption of the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina has issued an Indictment against the following person:

- Ismail Faisal, born in 2001 in Kabul, in Afghanistan, an Afghan citizen who is currently remanded in custody.

This accused person is charged with agreeing to participate, for the purpose of acquiring unlawful material gain, in the smuggling of several persons- illegal migrants, mostly citizens of Afghanistan, who did not meet the conditions for a legal entry and stay in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is in contravention of Article 6 of the Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea and Air, Supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime.

According to the allegations in the Indictment, at the end of August 2020, this accused person had waited for a group of about forty (40) illegal migrants in the territory of the Republic of Serbia, including minors, from whom money had been taken for their smuggling, and he then took a group of ten (10) migrants by boat across the water border on the Drina River, thus endangering their lives and their safety.

Having reached the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina, this accused person was detected and deprived of liberty by police officers of the Border Police of Bosnia and Herzegovina, whereas the illegal migrants were turned over to the care of the authorized services.

The aforementioned accused is charged with illegally transferring several migrants across the state border, including persons under the age of 18, whereby he committed the criminal offence of Smuggling of Persons, referred to in Article 189 of the Criminal Code of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The Indictment has been forwarded to the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina for confirmation.