Mektić on the defendant's bench on Thursday, judge is Dalida Burzić

SARAJEVO, (Patria) - The trial of former BiH Security Minister Dragan Mektić, who is accused of committing the criminal offense of high-level corruption through abuse of position and authority, begins next Thursday.

The trial will be held from 9:00 AM to 12:30 PM, and the judge in this case is Dalida Burzić, the former chief prosecutor of the Sarajevo Canton Prosecutor's Office, who is burdened by the stigma of the Dženan Memić murder case. 

The indictment against Mektić was filed by the Prosecutor's Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and it also includes former chief of staff of the BiH Security Minister Igor Golijanin, assistant minister in the BiH Ministry of Security Samir Agić, and Edin Garaplija, as the responsible person and owner of the Institute for Fire and Explosion Protection - INZA d.o.o. Sarajevo.

Mektić and Agić are charged with the extended criminal offense of abuse of position or authority under Article 220, Paragraph 3 of the Criminal Code (CC) of BiH, Golijanin with the extended criminal offense of abuse of position or authority under Article 220, Paragraph 2 of the CC BiH, and Garaplija with the extended criminal offense of abuse of position or authority under Article 220, Paragraph 3 in conjunction with Article 31 of the CC BiH.

According to the indictment, the aforementioned individuals committed the criminal offense of high-level corruption through abuse of position and authority, which damages the international reputation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Various instances of abuse of position or authority by the highest state officials and employees in the BiH Ministry of Security have been documented during the implementation of an interstate cross-border cooperation project in the field of firefighting, which was financed by the Delegation of the European Union to BiH, with the project value amounting to 198,454.51 euros.

The total damage caused amounts to 244,764.21 BAM, and the Prosecutor's Office of BiH will prove the allegations of the indictment by calling 31 witnesses and submitting 140 pieces of material evidence.