INDICTMENT FILED AGAINST A CITIZEN OF PAKISTAN FOR SMUGGLING MIGRANTS

A prosecutor of the BiH Prosecutor’s Office brought the indictment against the defendantTaimur Hassan, born in 2003, in Palia, Pakistan, citizen of Pakistan, remanded in custody.

The charges against the defendant are that on 26 September this year, around two hours after midnight, in conditions of reduced visibility, in the vicinity of Zvornik, he smuggled 20 migrants, citizens of Afghanistan, including one minor, from the area of the Republic of Serbia, across the Drina River, into the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The aforementioned migrants did not have any identification documents on them, and the accused committed the criminal offence knowing that these persons do not meet the conditions for legal entry or stay in BiH, as well as EU countries, and thereby acted contrary to Article 6 of the Protocol against Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea and Air, which supplements the UN Convention against Transnational Organised Crime, as well as the provisions of the BiH Border Control Law.

The smuggling was carried out on two occasions by means of a rubber boat and caused danger to the safety and lives of migrants. The defendant, after being spotted by police officers of the Border Police and SIPA BiH, tried to escape in which he was prevented and deprived of his freedom.

The defendant is accused of illegally transporting several migrants across the state border, one of whom was under 18 years of age, with the intention of acquiring unlawful property gain, an thereby committed the criminal offence of Smuggling of persons under Article 189 of the Criminal Code of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The indictment was forwarded to the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina for confirmation, which confirmed it.