BIH PROSECUTOR’S OFFICE SATISFIED WITH CONVICTING PART OF JUDGMENT IN CASE CODENAMED ‘CALIBRE’; APPEAL TO REQUEST STRICTER PUNISHMENT FOR PERPETRATORS

In this case, the sentence of around ten (10) years of imprisonment has been pronounced in regard to the three persons accused of illicit trafficking in weapons, ammunition and military equipment to Austria. The operation and activities in this case were conducted in a joint effort with partner institutions of the Republic of Austria.

The Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina is satisfied with the convicting part of the first-instance Judgment whereby two accused persons, namely Esad Kahvedžić (1965) and Stevan Žarkić (1964), were sentenced to five (5) years and ten (10) months and three (3) years of imprisonment, respectively.

At an earlier date, having signed a Plea Agreement, the accused Petar Mirkić (1973) was sentenced to imprisonment for a term of one (1) year and one (1) month.

The Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina is not satisfied with the acquittal of the accused Almir Kahvedžić (1995), nor with the length of the sentence pronounced, and it will lodge an appeal to the acquitting part of the Judgment, as well as an appeal requesting more severe sentences.

The case codenamed ‘Calibre’ is a result of the joint work of the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the EU police and judiciary (from the Republic of Austria), which has been realized as a joint action aimed at detecting and prosecuting persons suspected of smuggling of larger quantities of weapons, ammunition and military equipment from Bosnia and Herzegovina to Austria intended to be used for the commission of criminal offences there.