Crime Pays (or Doesn't)

In just a few days, the public was informed that the Cantonal Court in Sarajevo and the State Court allowed two convicts to exchange their prison sentences for fines. One might say it's a trade-off in the judiciary. The same judiciary that has been shaken by scandals for months due to the arrests of judges, prosecutors, lawyers, suspensions of high judicial officials, spectacular arrests followed by releases due to lack of evidence from prosecutors...

Reaching agreements with suspects and previously convicted criminals has become almost the norm. Simply put, crime clearly pays in this country. The state earns something, money isn't spent on lengthy trials, and hardly anyone talks about the damage caused anymore.  

Lawyer Esad Hrvačić was sentenced to one year in prison, a fine of 10,000 KM, a 18-month ban from practicing law, and the confiscation of illicit gains amounting to almost 50,000 KM after admitting guilt for illegally registering numerous properties (a judge and other court officials were also arrested in the same case).

Then, he exchanged his one-year prison sentence for a monetary one. Considering he spent several months in pre-trial detention, which was deducted from his sentence, he paid 27,000 KM for his freedom. And so, after the ban on practicing law expires, Hrvačić will continue his profession as if he had never broken the law and been on the other side of the bars.

Those who should primarily protect and respect the laws of this country have actually brought it to shame. Such examples are a cancer on the Bosnian judiciary and the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The second example is perhaps even more disheartening, considering it involves an already convicted person. Sedinet Karić, who admitted to giving hundreds of thousands of convertible marks in bribes to the former director of the Indirect Taxation Authority of BiH, Kemal Čaušević, who is currently on trial, entered into a guilt admission agreement. Karić thus went from being a defendant to a collaborator of the BiH Prosecutor's Office and a key witness against Čaušević.

For admitting to criminal offenses that, among other things, directly damaged the BiH budget by millions, the BiH Prosecutor's Office has almost absolved him of guilt. He received a one-year prison sentence, which the Court then allowed him to commute for 36,500 KM.

In the spring of 2010, Karić was sentenced to five years in prison for tax evasion. During his sentence, he frequently had leaves, and during one of them in August 2013, he was arrested again for organized crime and customs and tax evasion. Karić was released from prison in early October 2014 thanks to the Parole Commission. The state had previously confiscated property worth 2.6 million KM from Karić, and he was fined 50,000 KM.

It is precisely such actions that have given Karić wind in his sails, and he threatens lawsuits against journalists who state that he is a convicted criminal. According to Karić's understanding, "he served his time, and he's not a war criminal."

That is presumably his excuse to continue with tax evasion, financial fraud, and bribery. According to the BiH Prosecutor's Office and Court, it even pays off.