PAKISTANI CITIZEN SIGNS PLEA AGREEMENT ADMITTING GUILT FOR MIGRANT SMUGGLING

A six-month prison sentence for smuggling of eleven (11) illegal migrants, who were smuggled from Montenegro to Bosnia and Herzegovina

The accused Maib Ameer, born in 1998 in Pakistan, a citizen of Pakistan, who is currently remanded in custody, signed a Plea Agreement in the presence of his attorney, fully admitting his guilt for the commission of the criminal offence of Smuggling of Persons, referred to in Article 189 of the Criminal Code of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

He admitted to taking over eleven (11) illegal migrants in the territory of Montenegro, namely ten (10) citizens of Syria and one (1) citizen of Pakistan, on 22 April this year, upon a previous agreement and for the purpose of acquiring unlawful material gain, as well as to smuggling those migrants who did not meet the conditions for a legal entry and stay in Bosnia and Herzegovina, all of which is in contravention of the provisions of Article 6 of the Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea and Air, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, and is contrary to the provisions of the Law on Border Control and the Law on Aliens, respectively.

Having entered the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the area of Čajniče, he organized further transport of those migrants into the interior of Bosnia and Herzegovina, in the course of which they were discovered and prevented by police officers who found them in a vehicle in the area of Čajniče.

The proposed sentence of imprisonment for a term of six (6) months is consistent with the role and responsibility of the accused in the execution of the said criminal offence.

By signing the Plea Agreement, the accused waived his right to a trial, as well as his right to appeal against the judgment handed down by the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina on the basis of this Plea Agreement.

If the court accepts the Plea Agreement, the case will be completed in its entirety without conducting the court proceedings.