Border Police: What is Vladimir Popović's role in transferring Ante Jelavić from BiH to Croatia

Although a group of Border Police officers of BiH sent a letter to SIPA seven years ago, revealing illegal actions involving the head of the Office for Professional Standards and Internal Control of the BiH Border Police, Vladimir Popović, requesting an investigation, their allegations have not been checked to this day, writes the Patria news agency.

In the letter, they provided information about Popović's involvement in the illegal transfer of former member of the BiH Presidency and president of HDZ BiH, Ante Jelavić, from BiH to Croatia.

Jelavić was sentenced in BiH in 2005 to ten years in prison for embezzling money that arrived from Croatia as aid to Croats in BiH. After that, he fled to Croatia to avoid the prison sentence.

In April 2009, Jelavić was kidnapped in a parking lot in Zagreb, transferred from Croatia to BiH, and held captive, allegedly in an abandoned house of Vlado Ćurić in Prozor.

Vinko Žuljević and retired HVO general Stanko Sopta Baja managed to persuade the kidnappers to release Jelavić, and upon his return to Croatia, he told the media that he had escaped and crossed the border on foot, which is not true.

According to unofficial information, Sopta and Žuljević asked the then director of the BiH Border Police, Vinko Dumančić, to enable Jelavić's unhindered return from BiH to Croatia. After that, Dumančić requested from the head of the Field Office South, Željko Ćorić, to arrange an unhindered passage for the former member of the BiH Presidency, which he refused, stating that he was not interested in such criminals.

Furthermore, the letter states that Dumančić called Vladimir Popović, who was then acting commander of the GP Doljani, and explained the situation to him.

Popović obeyed Dumančić, and on April 9, the day after the kidnapping, in the evening hours, he transported Jelavić across the Podprolog border crossing in the trunk of his personal car to Croatia.

After the successful operation, Dumančić was reportedly angry with Željko Ćorić, telling him that he would not stay in that position much longer, while Popović was rewarded and praised on the Day of the BiH Border Police.

At that time, Dumančić announced publicly that an investigation would be conducted to determine how Jelavić left BiH, i.e., crossed the border, but this was never done.

Jelavić kidnapped by Tuta's fighters

Due to the kidnapping of Jelavić, the County Court in Zagreb sentenced Vlado Ćurić (39) to three and a half years in prison, Mario Miličević to four years, and Dalibor Prgomet and Vlatko Miličević to three years each.

Mario Miličević, nicknamed Baja, and Vlado Ćorić, nicknamed Barun, are members of the former HVO Punishment Battalion, commanded by Hague convict Mladen Naletilić Tuta. They demanded a million-euro ransom from Jelavić's family, which they all admitted during the trial.

Popović was never a police officer

For the record, members of the BiH Border Police also wrote to the new director of SIPA, Perica Stanić. In their letter, they stated that Vladimir Popović has no police service days nor has he completed the police academy, and the certificate he received from a Herzegovina MUP stating he was their employee is also suspicious. Furthermore, they wrote that he managed to position himself highly in the BiH Border Police thanks to strong political backing, and that before coming to the BiH Border Police, he worked in a private company.