The Prosecutor's Office of Bosnia and HerzegovinaNews
INDICTMENT ISSUED FOR CRIMINAL OFFENSE OF PROVOKING ETHNIC, RACIAL AND RELIGIOUS HATRED, DISCORD AND INTOLERANCE
10.09.2021. 15:10
Having conducted an investigation, a Prosecutor of the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina issued an Indictment against the following person:
- A. F., born in 1966, a citizen of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
This accused person is charged that, on several occasions, through the website antimigrant.ba, IP domain 19 ************ for which he was the administrative contact and content editor, as well as via an e-mail address, during 2019 and 2020, in order to provoke and inflame ethnic and religious hatred towards the migrant population and peoples living in Bosnia and Herzegovina, he continuously publicly posted texts and videos that abound in statements inciting and spreading hatred towards migrants and between the constituent peoples, which is contrary to the provisions of the Law on the Prohibition of Discrimination, as well as the provisions of the Press and Online Media Code of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
In this manner, the accused caused anxiety among a large number of persons, namely representatives of the non-governmental sector, members of the Network for Building Peace, the Press Council in Bosnia and Herzegovina and other persons who had the opportunity to read the content of those messages published on the said web portal, which also caused a reaction from the Institution of the Human Rights Ombudsman/Ombudsmen of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The aforementioned accused person is charged with publicly provoking or inflaming ethnic, racial or religious hatred, discord or intolerance among the constituent peoples and others, as well as among all others living or residing in Bosnia and Herzegovina, whereby he committed the continued criminal offense of Provoking Ethnic, Racial and Religious Hatred, Discord and Intolerance, referred to in Article 145a, paragraph 1 of the Criminal Code of Bosnia and Herzegovina, in conjunction with Article 54 of the same Code.
The Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina will be proving the allegations of the Indictment by calling nine (9) witnesses and submitting a larger number of pieces of evidence.
The Indictment was forwarded to the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina for confirmation, and the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina confirmed it.
This announcement does not prejudice the outcome of the criminal proceedings and does not violate the principle of the presumption of innocence. A person shall be considered innocent of a crime until guilt has been established by a final verdict (Article 3, paragraph 1 of the CPC BiH).
