INDICTMENT ISSUED FOR SMUGGLING OF ILLEGAL MIGRANTS FROM TURKEY

The accused Ivan Bakula (1983) is charged with participating in the smuggling of several illegal migrants, citizens of the Republic of Turkey, in order to obtain unlawful material gain.

Prosecutor of the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina has issued an Indictment against the following person:

-      Ivan Bakula aka "Ćićanović", born in 1983 in Imotski, a citizen of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Republic of Croatia.

The aforementioned accused person is charged with contacting a person from Turkey, for the purpose of acquiring unlawful material gain, from whom he received detailed instructions on the location of several illegal migrants from Turkey who did not have valid documents nor did they meet the conditions for a legal stay in Bosnia and Herzegovina, but those migrants entered our country illegally from the territory of the Republic of Serbia.

Furthermore, the accused took over the migrants and transported them in a rented motor vehicle in order that they be illegally smuggled to the territory of the Republic of Croatia and further to EU countries. Nevertheless, he was detected and prevented from committing the aforementioned offence by officers of the Border Police of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Both the smuggler and the migrants attempted to escape from the police, but they were caught and prevented from escaping.

These actions are contrary to Article 6 of the Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea and Air, Supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, as well as in violation of the applicable laws of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The aforementioned accused person is charged with the commission of 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.