INDICTMENT FILED FOR INTERNATIONAL SMUGGLING OF MIGRANTS

A prosecutor of the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina filed an indictment against:

-         MUHAMMAD NASRI, born in 2003 in Konar, Afghanistan, citizen of Afghanistan, remanded in custody, and

-         ZAIN AFRIDI, born in 2002 in Jamraud, Pakistan, a citizen of Pakistan, remanded in custody.

The charges against the defendants are that they, acting with the intention of acquiring unlawful property gain, allowed for 18 Afghan migrants, including minors, to illegally enter Bosnia and Herzegovina from the Republic of Serbia, even though the said migrants did not meet the conditions for legal entry and stay in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

On 23 June of this year, the defendants smuggled the aforementioned illegal migrants in two groups by boat across the Drina River to the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina even though they knew that they were illegal migrants who could not swim and that they were endangering their lives, health and safety by putting them into a rubber boat in a much larger number than allowed. After being spotted by police officers of the BiH Border Police, the defendants tried to escape by jumping from the boat in which they were transporting migrants, but the police officers prevented them from doing that.

The defendants are accused of having committed the criminal offence of Smuggling of persons in violation of Article 189 (1) of the Criminal Code of Bosnia and Herzegovina as read with paragraph 4 thereof, and all in conjunction with Article 29 of the same Code.

The indictment was forwarded to the Court of BiH for confirmation.