Košarac defends himself: Explains trip to Panama

(Patria) - Minister of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations of Bosnia and Herzegovina Staša Košarac (SNSD) officially responded to the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH regarding his stay in Panama. The trip in question was carried out in August 2022. Incidentally, the flight from Sarajevo to Panama with a layover lasts more than 13 and a half hours, given the distance of about 10,000 kilometers.

Namely, MP in the House of Representatives Mladen Bosić (SDS) was interested in the volume of economic exchange between BiH and Panama, as well as which agreements were signed between these two countries.

No agreement in five years

In his response, Košarac stated that the total foreign trade exchange between BiH and Panama amounts to 2,247,223 BAM, while in the first three months of this year it amounted to 219,621 BAM. As Košarac pointed out, BiH and Panama have not concluded any agreement in five years!

Given the low volume of foreign trade between these two countries, Košarac defends himself, stating that the Ministry delegation led by him organized an official visit to Panama in August 2022, at the invitation of the local ministry.

He emphasized that this official visit was carried out with the assistance of the Association of Entrepreneurs of BiH and Panama, which, as he stated, was then headed by Fatih Kol.

Kol dismissed by the BiH Presidency

The aforementioned Kol is, incidentally, a person wanted by the Prosecutor's Office of BiH, i.e., he is on the proposal of this prosecutor's office for ordering detention and prohibition measures because he is accused of being a member of Edin Gačanin's criminal group. The Prosecutor's Office of BiH, as part of the operation "Black Tie 2", issued an order to conduct an investigation against Kol on suspicion of money laundering for the Tito and Dino drug cartel.

The BiH Presidency dismissed Kol from the position of honorary consul in Panama on May 14. Košarac himself said at a press conference a day earlier that Kol was indeed at the meetings in Panama, but that he only learned from the media in May 2024 that he was being linked to the "Black Tie 2" affair.