INDICTMENT ISSUED FOR SMUGGLING OF MIGRANTS

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:

- NATKO MENALO, born in 1977 in Metković, Republic of Croatia, a citizen of both Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Republic of Croatia.

This accused person is charged with acting 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 when he, on 22 September 2019, attempted to illegally transfer six citizens of the Republic of Turkey who did not meet the conditions for a legal entry into the Republic of Croatia. He attempted to transfer those persons outside the legal border crossing from Bosnia and Herzegovina to Croatia, taking the previously agreed monetary compensation for the transportation services, all for the purpose of acquiring unlawful material gain. 

According to the allegations in the Indictment, the aforementioned accused took over the smuggled persons in Mostar and drove them from Bijača towards the settlement of Pozla Gora in the Republic of Croatia, where he was discovered and prevented by officers of the Border Police 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, in conjunction with Article 26, paragraph 1 of the Criminal Code of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

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