INDICTMENT FILED AGAINST A CITIZEN OF LITHUANIA FOR SMUGGLING MIGRANTS

A prosecutor of the Special Department for Organised Crime, Economic Crime and Corruption filed an indictment against:

- Savulis Vladas, born in 1984 in Lithuania, citizen of Lithuania, who is remanded in custody.

The charges against the defendant are that he, with the intention of obtaining illegal property benefits, upon a prior agreement, for monetary compensation, admitted 27 migrants from Syria, Bangladesh, Iraq and Iran, including two minors, into the freight motor vehicle he operated and placed them into the space constructed for people smuggling, with the intention of smuggling them from Bosnia and Herzegovina to the Republic of Croatia and further to EU countries.

The smuggling was carried out by a freight vehicle-trailer without adequate conditions for accommodation and transport of persons, whereby the lives and health of smuggled persons were put at risk.

On 20 January 2024, the accused arrived at the BCP Gradiška by the said motor vehicle with the intention to illegally transfer the smuggled persons from the territory of BiH to the territory of the Republic of Croatia, even though he knew and was aware that they did not meet the conditions to legally cross the state border and stay in EU countries, 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 Organized Crime, as well as against the Law on Border Control and the Law on Aliens.

Through detailed searches, police officers of the Border Police discovered illegal migrants, who were handed over to the Service for Foreigners’ Affairs of Bosnia and Herzegovina for further processing.

The defendant is charged with having attempted to illegally transport and transfer 27 persons, foreign citizens, among whom were two minors, with the intention of obtaining illegal property benefits, thus putting their lives, health and safety at risk, 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.