CUSTODY MOTION FOR TWO FOREIGN CITIZENS CHARGED WITH SMUGGLING MIGRANTS

The prosecutor of the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina working on the case sent a motion to the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina to order the following suspects into custody:

-           Omar Alaw, born in 1999 in Damascus, Syria, citizen of Syria, residing in Austria, and

-           Alsajad Ali Yaseen Al-Helfi, born in 1996 in Baghdad, Iraq, citizen of Iraq, residing in Austria.

The custody measure was proposed for the reasons described in Article 132 (1) (a) and (b) of the Criminal Code of Bosnia and Herzegovina, that is, because of the risk of flight of the suspects, who would become inaccessible to judicial authorities if they leave Bosnia and Herzegovina, and because of the risk that by being at large, they could hinder the investigation, conceal evidence and exert influence on witnesses or accomplices.

The suspects are under investigation by the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina and it is suspected that on 26 November this year, with the intention of obtaining illegal property benefits, they transported two persons, citizens of Lebanon and Libya whom they had previously accepted into their car in Vienna, knowing that the transported persons did not meet the conditions for legal crossing of the state border, nor the conditions for their legal entry and authorised stay or residence in Bosnia and Herzegovina, thereby allowing them to illegally cross the state border from the territory of the Republic of Croatia to Bosnia and Herzegovina after which they continued their journey towards the border between Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro.

The smugglers and the smuggled persons were discovered by the Border Police of BiH in the border zone in the area of Gacko during the surveillance of the state border and control of a BMW passenger motor vehicle with the national registration plates of the Republic of Austria, after which they were apprehended and placed under control. The discovered illegal migrants were handed over to members of the Service for Foreigners’ Affairs of BiH for further processing.

The suspects are suspected of having committed the criminal offence of human smuggling in violation of Article 189 (1) of the Criminal Code of BiH, all in conjunction with Article 29 of the same Code.

The Prosecutor’s Office of BiH and the Border Police of BiH, together with partner agencies, undertake activities in the prosecution of criminal offences relating to illegal migrations in Bosnia and Herzegovina almost on a daily basis.