CUSTODY MOTION AGAINST A FOREIGN CITIZEN SUSPECTED OF MIGRANT SMUGGLING

Acting within a 24-hour duty, a prosecutor of the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina submitted to the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina a custody motion against the following suspect:

-         Maib Ameer, born in 1998 in Gujranvala, Pakistan, citizen of Pakistan, deprived of liberty by police officers of the Border Police of BiH at Hum-Foča.

The suspect was deprived of liberty while smuggling 11 illegal migrants outside the border crossing point in the area of Čajniče. The migrants originating from Pakistan and Syria did not meet the conditions for legal entry and stay in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is contrary to Article 6 of the Protocol against Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea and Air, which supplements the UN Convention against Transnational and Organised Crime, and also contrary to the Law on Border Control of BiH.

The suspect is charged with having smuggled foreign citizens in agreement with other persons in order to acquire unlawful property gain, with the intention of transporting them through the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina and their further smuggling to EU countries.

The custody measure was proposed for the reasons described in Article 132 (1), (a) and (b) of the Criminal Procedure Code of BiH, that is, because of the risk that the suspect, who is a foreign citizen, might flee, as well as because of the risk that if being at large, he could obstruct the investigation, conceal evidence and carry out influence on the witness or accomplices.

The suspect is charged with the criminal offence of Smuggling of persons set forth in Article 189 of the Criminal Code of BiH.

At the hearing held in the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the prosecutor in charge explained the reasons for custody after which the Court made a decision to order the suspect into custody.