INDICTMENT FILED AGAINST MEMBERS OF THE BORDER POLICE OF BIH FOR THE CRIMINAL OFFENCE OF CORRUPTION

A prosecutor of the Prosecutor’s Office of BiH filed an indictment against Nijaz Halilović (1973) from Goražde and Đorđe Mijović (1991) from East Ilidža, police officers employed with the Border Police of BiH.

The allegations against the defendants are that on 26 August 2021, at the International Border Crossing Point Hum, municipality of Foča, while performing the duties and tasks of authorised officers of the Border Police of BiH, namely the first defendant those of a team leader and the second defendant those of a police officer performing border control of persons and vehicles on entry into BiH, they demanded and accepted a gift to perform an action within the scope of their powers, which they should not perform.

The indictment states that on the specified day, during the Covid 19 pandemic when there was a large number of infected persons, the defendants, while performing border control of the travel documents of the passengers of a bus-minibus with registration number plates of the Republic of Montenegro, allowed a person who was a citizen of the Republic of Albania and who did not have the necessary Covid authorisations and certificates to illegally enter Bosnia and Herzegovina after they had demanded and accepted monetary benefit from the mentioned person, and in this way acquired unlawful material gain for themselves.

The aforementioned defendants acted contrary to the provisions of the UN Convention against Corruption (UNCAC), the Law on Foreigners, the Rulebook on the Entry and Stay of Foreigners and the Decision on Prescribing Additional Conditions for the Entry of Foreigners to BiH.

The defendants are accused of having committed the criminal offence of accepting gifts and other forms of benefit set out in Article 217 (1) of the Criminal Code of BiH in conjunction with Article 29 of the same Code.

The indictment was forwarded to the Court of BiH, which confirmed it.