People's Power Candidate Ramo Isak for Novi Grad Council is Hasan Hodžić, convicted of corruption and associate of a drug cartel

Hasan Hodžić Ćasa, convicted of corruption, linked to the Tito and Dino drug cartel, is politically active again. And as a candidate of the People's Power party, whose president is the Federal Minister of Internal Affairs Ramo Isak.

Hodžić is, as Istraga learns, on the list of Isak's party for the Municipal Council Novi Grad Sarajevo. He is number three.

Four years ago, specifically in June 2020, SIPA officers arrested Hodžić on suspicion that, as a councilor in the Municipal Council Novi Grad Sarajevo, he committed the criminal offense of accepting gifts and other benefits. Hodžić was then suspected of demanding and receiving a gift in the form of a laptop, mobile phone, and expensive perfumes in 2019, and then demanding 100,000 KM from a foreign investor in order to obtain a decision on the amendment of the Regulatory Plan of this Municipality for the construction of a facility through councilors of the Municipality of Novi Grad.

Almost a year later, Hodžić pleaded guilty and reached an agreement with the Sarajevo Canton Prosecutor's Office. In April 2021, it was announced that the Municipal Court in Sarajevo, after accepting the plea agreement, found Hasan Hodžić guilty of the criminal offense of accepting a reward or other benefit for trading in influence.

He was sentenced to one year in prison. At the same time, he was banned from holding public office for a period of three years from the date the verdict became final. Convicted Hodžić, better known as Ćasa, admitted that from the beginning of July 2019 to the end of April 2020, in his capacity as a municipal councilor and deputy chairman of the Municipal Council Novi Grad Sarajevo, he directly and on multiple occasions demanded a monetary amount ranging from 50,000.00 KM to 100,000.00 KM from a foreign investor in order to obtain a decision on the amendment of the Regulatory Plan in the area of this municipality for the legal entity “Rojal Plaza” through councilors in Novi Grad.

However, that is not all. In July 2019, Mirza Gačanin, uncle of drug boss Edin Gačanin Tito, gave a written statement authorizing Hasan Hodžić Ćasa to sign documents on his behalf during the sale and purchase of land in Sarajevo. Mirza Gačanin was then under investigation in the Netherlands for money laundering acquired through cocaine smuggling. In addition, Mirza Gačanin is currently in extradition custody in the Netherlands, awaiting extradition to Bosnia and Herzegovina. Hasan Hodžić Ćasa was, therefore, his "representative".

However, neither the conviction for corruption nor the cooperation with the drug cartel was problematic for the Minister of Internal Affairs of the Federation of BiH, Ramo Isak, to put Hasan Hodžić Ćasa on his party list, writes Istraga.