Bosnalijek Affair: Shareholders Demand Legality of Ćelam's Decisions on HADEN Be Examined

The Association of Small Shareholders of Bosnalijek has sent a request to the President and Vice-Presidents of the FBiH to, based on their constitutional powers, file a request with the Constitutional Court for an assessment of the constitutionality of the authentic interpretation of Article 5 of the Law on the Securities Commission, reports the Patria news agency.  

With this authentic interpretation in 2013, the FBiH Government granted amnesty to the work of the Securities Commission, headed by Hasan Ćelam, whose mandate expired in 2009.

This same Commission registered HADEN's Supervisory Board of Bosnalijek in the securities, which then appointed its own director.

-Some law professors claim that it was a forced amendment to the law, and they called it an authentic interpretation only so that it could apply retroactively to cover the actions of the three-member Securities Commission, which had been operating for five years beyond its mandate – explains a Patria source.

In this way, the three-member Commission "stepped" into its third term.

-We are now asking the FBiH Presidency to request an assessment from the court as to whether this interpretation is in accordance with the Constitution. If it is an amendment, and not an interpretation, which is what we expect, all actions performed by Ćelam during that period would be practically void, as they were carried out solely based on the authentic interpretation.

The Supreme Court of FBiH ruled in April 2013 in a different case that this Commission was illegitimate. That is why the Commission sought an authentic interpretation from the FBiH Government to register HADEN's Supervisory Board in the securities, thereby enabling control over Bosnalijek.

We remind you that HADEN, through the brokerage house Eurohaus owned by Zijad Blekić, Hasan Ćelam's best man, bought Bosnalijek shares from September 2012 to mid-May 2013 at a price of 13 KM, even though they were worth more than 20 KM.

A few months ago, SIPA, on the order of the BiH Prosecutor's Office, began confiscating documentation and conducting searches at this company, investigating how Haden, a company based in Luxembourg, was buying Bosnalijek shares.

Haden became the owner of 29.95 percent of Bosnalijek shares, exactly enough for the Federation to move to second ownership place. But also exactly enough to prevent the disclosure of the company's entire ownership structure.