CASE "ENVELOPE" Sarajevo Canton Prosecutor's Office investigating collusion between politics and academia for months, will there be more arrests?

By Amra Vrabac

The arrest of Muhamed Ajanović, Dean of the Faculty of Dentistry at the University of Sarajevo, and Dalila Hakalović, chief cantonal education inspector of KUIP, has opened numerous questions within the academic community itself.

Within the same case "Envelope", the Minister of Higher Education Adna Mesihović and her assistant Dženita Viteškić were arrested in April of this year. While Mesihović was detained at the time, Viteškić returned to work without any measures.

Several months later, after Ajanović's arrest, the role and collusion of Mesihović-Viteškić-Hakalović and Ajanović were revealed in more detail at the hearing for determining detention. Ajanović's role concerns not only the extension of his own mandate as Dean of Dentistry for the third time, but also the influence he had on the chief cantonal education inspector Hakalović.

After Mesihović became Minister of Higher Education in November 2023, the then-rector was Rifat Škrijelj. Inspection supervision at the University of Sarajevo was frequent, and official information indicates that 350 inspections were carried out.

During the past year, the election of the rector of the University of Sarajevo was conducted, with only two candidates applying: Tarik Zaimović and Almira Hadžović-Džuvo. Ajanović lobbied for Hadžović-Džuvo, and inspection supervision continued.

After Zaimović was elected in the second round of voting with three more votes than his opponent, an attempt began to challenge his election, in which Minister Mesihović, along with Ajanović, took a significant role.

The extent of their actions is shown by the fact that in December 2024, Mesihović and the Minister of Finance of Sarajevo Canton, Afan Kalamujić, suspended the payment of salaries for about 2,700 employees at the University of Sarajevo because they contested the signature of the new rector.

As reported yesterday by the portal Istraga, on 07.10.2024, Dženita Viteškić informed Mesihović that the inspection would annul the decision on the election of the rector, and that an appeal from UNSA would reach the Ministry as the second-instance body, after which Mesihović said: “Muhamed is writing to me to hurry up.” The two then agreed that, based on an anonymous report, the Ministry would send a request to the inspection to conduct an inspection regarding the election of the rector, and that Viteškić would prepare an act which Mesihović said she would send the very next day, according to the Prosecutor's Office's proposal.

The saga with the registration in the court register also lasted for months, and UNSA lawyers requested a temporary measure from the court. Zaimović was registered in the court register after the appeal was accepted in a repeated decision by the Municipal Court in January of this year.

Anonymous reports and inspection supervision continued, and Mesihović and Viteškić were arrested for abuse of position and illegal employment in the Ministry of Arijana Turković. However, Turković did not start working in this ministry after her arrest. Incidentally, all three are cadres of the movement For New Generations, founded by Damir Marjanović.

After the scandal involving ZNG cadres, including Ibrahim Obhođaš, Marjanović resigned from his mandate as a deputy in the Sarajevo Canton Assembly. He is also the director of an institute in Zagreb. Although he announced that Tarik Jažić would succeed him in the Sarajevo Canton Assembly, an unexpected turn of events occurred. Mesihović decided to accept the mandate as the next on the list, given that she is under restraining orders and cannot return to the Ministry. Thus, on October 15th of this year, Mesihović was dismissed from her position as minister, and on the same day, she took over the mandate of a cantonal deputy. From this position, she will now decide on the Sarajevo Canton Budget, which also includes the University of Sarajevo, which she, in collusion with Ajanović, tried to hinder in its work by challenging the election of rector Tarik Zaimović and overwhelming them with inspection supervision. The director of KUIP, Adis Mešić, will testify about these circumstances.

During October, on the order of the Sarajevo Canton Prosecutor's Office, searches were carried out at several faculties – Dentistry, Mechanical, and Economics, the Employment Service of Sarajevo Canton, the Government of Sarajevo Canton, the Ministry of Finance of Sarajevo Canton, the Cantonal Administration for Inspection Affairs, which indicates that the case "Envelope" is one of the more complex cases involving numerous institutions, ministers, directors, and deans in collusion with several political options. Payments from the Ministry of Higher Education to certain faculties, companies, and projects are also being investigated.

Given the new circumstances and Dženita Viteškić's role, the question arises whether she can continue to hold the position of assistant minister, or whether the Sarajevo Canton Prosecutor's Office will now seek restraining orders.

Ajanović was ordered one month's detention, while Hakalović is under restraining orders.