Operation Courier: Indictment filed against three lawyers, a judge, court officials

Following an extensive investigation, the Sarajevo Canton Prosecutor's Office has filed an indictment against three lawyers, Ismet Hamzić, Samina Skopak, Esad Hrvačić, Municipal Court judge in Sarajevo Milena Rajić, four employees of the Municipal Court in Sarajevo Tanja Jović, Branka Husanović, Zaim Spahović, Muamer Pita, employee of the Cantonal Court in Sarajevo Mirsada Alić, associate of lawyer Esad Hrvačić, Elmin Džina, and Pero Vuković, it was announced from the KS Prosecutor's Office, reports Patria.
 
According to the indictment, lawyer Ismet Hamzić is accused of organizing a criminal group from 2013 to 2016 that, through illegal actions, obtained 46 illegal verdicts before the Municipal Court in Sarajevo. Members of this group were Mirsada Alić, Pero Vuković, Zaim Spahović, Tanja Jović, and Branka Husanović.
 
Namely, Ismet Hamzić, through court clerks, to whom he paid money for this service, ensured that cases were assigned to judge Milena Rajić, who, by violating the law, issued verdicts in favor of Hamzić's clients. 
 
Suspect Ismet Hamzić initiated civil proceedings, forged delivery notes, after which couriers presented the fictitious delivery as proper in the court files. 
 
In the same period, due to the illegal registration of property of their clients, by forging delivery notes in the names of the defendants, lawyer Esad Hrvačić joined forces with court couriers Zaim Spahović, Muamer Pit, and associate Elmin Džina. Thus, they obtained 18 illegal verdicts. And after lawyer Samina Skopak joined forces with the same couriers, 9 illegal verdicts were issued.
 
By committing the criminal offenses of organized crime related to Hamzić's group, and association for the purpose of committing criminal offenses related to Hrvačić and Skopak, in connection with the criminal offenses of abuse of position or authority, violation of the law by a judge, forgery of an official document, giving and receiving gifts and other benefits, the suspects acquired property benefits in the amount of about 200,000 marks, while the benefits acquired by the lawyers' clients due to illegally registered real estate amount to more than 7 million KM. 
 
Along with the indictment, the Prosecutor's Office proposed to the Cantonal Court in Sarajevo the extension of detention for the organizer Ismet Hamzić, while for the others in the indictment, restrictive measures were proposed. 
 
At the same time, the confiscation of property acquired through the commission of the aforementioned criminal offenses was proposed to the court. 
 
The indictment, which has been forwarded to the Cantonal Court in Sarajevo for confirmation, contains 820 pages, more than a thousand material evidence items have been proposed, and the hearing of 246 witnesses, 7 experts, and professional persons is planned.