INDICTMENT FILED AGAINST A BELARUS CITIZEN FOR SMUGGLING MIGRANTS

A prosecutor from the Section for Combating Human Trafficking and Illegal Migrations filed charges against

-         Dzmitry Trembach, born in 1979, a citizen of Belarus, who is remanded in custody.

The defendant is charged that in early 2024, with a view to obtaining an unlawful financial benefit, upon prior agreement with the persons of Afro-Asian origin who did not meet the conditions for travel and stay in EU countries, he smuggled and illegally transferred 26 migrants, citizens of Türkiye and Syria who paid different amounts ranging from EUR 3,500 to EUR 5,000 for smuggling.

The smuggling was carried out by a freight motor vehicle with a trailer operated by the defendant, on the route from Bosnia and Herzegovina to Poland, after the defendant, in the vicinity of Sarajevo, had allowed a group of 26 migrants, including women, children and minors, to board and hide among the cargo.

The smuggling was discovered and prevented on the border between BiH and the Republic of Croatia by police officers of the Border Police of BiH - BCP Brod, who discovered in the truck the migrants who did not meet the conditions for travel and stay in the Republic of Croatia and the EU, which is against 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 Law on Border Control and the Law on Foreigners.

It is alleged against the defendant that in order to obtain an unlawful financial benefit in an amount known to him, he attempted to illegally transport several migrants across the state border, including persons under the age of 18 and that in doing so he obtained illegal financial benefit, whereby he committed the criminal offence of smuggling of persons set out in Article 189 of the Criminal Code of BiH.

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