Ćavar works on the orders of BIA, whom Šemsudin Mehmedović brought and sought favors from

Kemal Čaušević took over the position of Director of the Indirect Taxation Authority of BiH on December 8, 2003. In his statement given during his arrest, and during which he had no intention of appearing before the BiH Prosecutor's Office again and giving a new one, and who in the meantime declared him a key witness in the case of the century in BiH, he spoke, among other things, about the affair surrounding Mostar's Soko, writes the BiH news agency Patria.

The building owned by Soko, headed at the time by HDZ BiH candidate for the BiH Presidency member from the Croat people Dragan Čović, which was completely burned down in the privatization process, was bought for KM 600,000 by a group of individuals, and the purchase agreement stated the amount of KM 900,000.

As Čaušević stated, the then director of the Customs Administration of the Federation of BiH, Želimir Rebac, tried to dispute that agreement. The agreement was signed before he took over the leadership of the CU FBiH.

As a reminder, the former director of the Customs Administration of the Federation of BiH, Želimir Rebac, committed suicide on October 7, 2006, in Mostar by jumping from the Lučki bridge into the Neretva River, and his body was found in the settlement of Buna, south of Mostar.

A year earlier, Rebac had also attempted suicide by jumping into the Neretva from a bridge, but was prevented at the last moment by a police officer. One of the causes of his depression is also linked to anonymous threats to him and his family during his tenure as director of the Customs Administration. Because of this, the police guarded the building in Franjevačka Street in Mostar where Rebac lived for months.

Rebac came under particular pressure in June 2006 when he was supposed to appear as a prosecution witness in the case of "Čović and others". It was believed that he could be the main witness in proving customs fraud in this case.

The media in BiH had previously mentioned Želimir Rebac as a potential witness in the court proceedings against HDZ BiH candidate for the BiH Presidency member from the Croat people Dragan Čović, who was accused of allegedly helping the meat industry Lijanovići from Široki Brijeg avoid paying customs duties when importing meat into BiH while he was the federal Minister of Finance. As a reminder, Čović and Lijanovići were acquitted after this trial.

The former director of the ITA BiH, who agreed to cooperate with the BiH Prosecutor's Office, also mentioned the name of Mladen Ćavar, Deputy Minister of Security of BiH, in his statement.

There are indications, as revealed to us by a source from the BiH Prosecutor's Office, that Ćavar's hands are tied precisely because of the illegal actions he committed while he was the head of Customs Mostar, and then his alleged role given to him by the Serbian intelligence service BIA with the aim of disrupting the economic space of our country, and that he is silent about many things and does not interfere in his work, from the case of Goran Zubac, director of SIPA, to the latest developments in the BiH Border Police.

Ćavar, as stated by Čaušević, was a former employee of the ITA BiH. One company reported Ćavar for demanding KM 1,000 for the customs clearance of each of their trucks. In every conversation on this topic, Ćavar denied to Čaušević, as his superior, that he was taking bribes, although the owners of this company stood by their claims. It is indicative that, as Čaušević said, precisely at that time Ćavar managed to buy himself an apartment in Mostar worth KM 120,000.

Also, Čaušević emphasized Ćavar's role given to him by the Serbian BIA. The ITA Trade Union was founded by security personnel, including Mladen Ćavar, a former pilot of Croat nationality, who was a member of the Air Force Academy of the former JNA from 1992 to 1995, and then found employment in the ITA as a Croat cadre. Due to his wartime past, he was treated negatively by Croats in BiH.

As a suitable person, BIA installed him in the ITA, and together with other Serbs, as well as some Bosniaks and Croats, he worked according to Belgrade's directives, so that, as Čaušević said, it was an attempt by neighboring Serbia to control the economic space of BiH.

Čaušević also possesses documented intercepted conversations of individuals from BiH who worked for BIA. He informed the SDA Collegium, the director of OSA Almir Džuvo, as well as some high-ranking officials of the OHR about this information. Documentation about this is already in the hands of the BiH Prosecutor's Office.

When it comes to Šemsudin Mehmedović, a member of the SDA in the BiH Parliament, the former director of the ITA mentioned his friendly relations with Anes Sadiković, the uncrowned "king of textiles in BiH". Mehmedović allegedly asked Čaušević to "facilitate" some matters for Sadiković regarding customs clearance of goods.

As a reminder, Sadiković surrendered himself to the BiH Prosecutor's Office in June of this year. He is linked to former and current officials and employees of the Indirect Taxation Authority of BiH, who were arrested in the police operation "Pandora", due to criminal activities that caused multi-million dollar damage to the budgets in BiH.

CRNALIĆ CONFIRMED: ČAUŠEVIĆ WAS HEARD YESTERDAY

Kemal Čaušević was heard again yesterday at the BiH Prosecutor's Office, as confirmed to Patria by his lawyer Asim Crnalić. However, Crnalić could not tell us how many times his client had been to the BiH Prosecutor's Office so far.

STRATEGY OF POLITICAL POWERHOUSES MENTIONED IN THE STATEMENT

From the moment Patria started publishing the names of political powerhouses from SNSD, HDZ BiH, and SDA involved in the "Čaušević" case, a media campaign began through certain media outlets, and everything is being attempted to be presented as an attack on Serb and Croat cadres, while some Bosniaks are being singled out more to allegedly camouflage the biggest post-war crime in this country.

Political powerhouses who have been enriching themselves for years by committing illegal acts, through the ITA BiH, have justifiably devised a strategy to reduce the entire story to the old saying "they are persecuting ours". However, trusting in the professionalism of the Prosecutor's Office and the Court of BiH, one should expect that an indictment in this case will be filed very soon, and that the guilt of all those who damaged the BiH budget by 2 billion KM, and pocketed tens of millions of marks, will be proven. This includes both political masterminds and ITA employees who participated in the biggest post-war case of crime and corruption.