Marathon Trial: No Evidence Against Professor Zdravko Lučić After 8 Years

The trial in the case of Sarajevo professor Zdravko Lučić continues on April 22nd at the Municipal Court in Tuzla, reports the BH News Agency Patria.

After eight years of investigation and numerous hearings, the Tuzla Prosecutor's Office has failed to prove the indictment against professor Zdravko Lučić, nor is there any evidence against him.

He is accused of abusing his official position and assigning grades to several female students of the Faculty of Law in Sarajevo, Tuzla branch, without the students, according to the indictment, attending the exam.

Four female students involved in the alleged affair denied receiving grades without taking exams.

One of them stated during the trial that she took the exam in the amphitheater of the Faculty of Law in Tuzla, which had 200 students, and received a grade from Professor Lučić.

Due to the indictment, the Senate of the University of Sarajevo imposed a lifetime ban on Professor Lučić from working with students at the University of Sarajevo, while his work at other universities is permitted.

In the same process, the Prosecutor's Office also indicted professors of the Faculty of Law in Sarajevo Bajro Golić, Fuad Saltaga, and Enes Durmišević. These three were accused of revealing exam questions to female students in exchange for sexual favors.

Professors Golić and Saltaga have since passed away. Durmišević has been reinstated, while Professor Lučić is still fighting to prove his innocence. The Senate of the University of Sarajevo rejected Lučić's appeal on Tuesday, in which he sought to be reinstated at the faculty.

Interestingly, the Municipal Court in Tuzla declared itself incompetent for this case, but the Supreme Court of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina decided that it could indeed conduct the trial.

Around 300 witnesses have been heard over the past eight years, several judges and prosecutors have changed, but the Prosecutor's Office still has no evidence against Lučić.

His driver, Jasmin Mašić, who was sentenced to two years in prison for incitement to prostitution, has appealed to the Supreme Court of the FBiH twice so far, which overturned the verdict due to lack of evidence, but the Municipal Court issued the same verdict for the third time, to which he appealed again.

Mašić was initially supposed to be a prosecution witness, but the prosecution withdrew from him. It turned out that pressure was exerted on him to testify against Lučić. When the prosecution withdrew from Mašić, Lučić's lawyer Almin Dautbegović called him as a witness.

Mašić testified in favor of Professor Lučić, stating that an inspector who is his godfather had also pressured him to give a false statement. However, when the defense called the inspector as a witness, he withdrew and refused to appear in court.

Professor Lučić himself stated that the entire case is a politically motivated process against him, aimed at breaking him.