APPEAL FILED AGAINST THE ACQUITTING VERDICT OF THE COURT OF BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA OF 18 NOVEMBER 2014 IN THE CRIMINAL CASE AGAINST THE ACCUSED MARIO ŠEGO, ŠEFIK HASANOVIĆ AND MUHAMED GURBETA

The Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina has filed an Appeal against the Acquitting Verdict in relation to the three persons charged with the criminal offenses of destruction of surplus weapons, whereby unlawful material gain of approximately BAM 500,000.00 was acquired.  

Pursuant to the provisions of the Criminal Procedure Code of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina has filed an Appeal with the Panel of the Appellate Division of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina against the aforementioned Verdict, due to an essential violation of the provisions of criminal procedure and the state of the facts being erroneously or incompletely established.  

The Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina has acquitted Mario Šego, born in 1960 in Sarajevo, Šefik Hasanović aka Šeške, born in 1966 in Novi Travnik and Muhamed Gurbeta, born in 1962 in Bugojno, of the charges that Mario Šego and Šefik Hasanović committed the criminal offenses of Lack of Commitment in Office in concurrence with the criminal offense of Forging of Official Document, as referred to in Article 226, Paragraph 1 of the Criminal Code of Bosnia and Herzegovina and that Muhamed Gurbeta committed the criminal offense of Forging of Official Document and the criminal offense of Abuse of Office or Official Authority, as referred to in Article 383 of the Criminal Code of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina is charging the accused Šego and Hasanović, as official persons in the institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina, namely in the Ministry of Defense of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the accused Gurbeta as the Director of the Binas d.d. /Joint Stock Company/ from Bugojno with the commission of the aforementioned criminal offenses, in the period from 2007 to 2009. The committed criminal offenses inflicted major damages to the State of Bosnia and Herzegovina because of the large quantity of weapons that were shown as destroyed, although such destruction had never taken place, which caused major threat to security. The Indictment alleges that the accused persons generated unlawful gain in various ways and caused damages to the State of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the amount of approximately half a million BAM.

Due to the foregoing, the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina moves the Panel of the Appellate Division of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina to honour this Appeal and revoke the first instance Verdict and decide to hold a trial before the Panel of the Appellate Division of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina.