Detention proposed for two foreign nationals for migrant smuggling

The acting prosecutor of the Prosecutor's Office of BiH has submitted a proposal to the Court of BiH for the detention of suspects Alawa Omar, born in 1999 in Damascus, Syria, a Syrian citizen, residing in Austria, and Alsajad Ali Yaseen Al-Helfi, born in 1996 in Baghdad, Iraq, an Iraqi citizen, residing in Austria.

Detention has been proposed for the reasons described in Article 132, Paragraph 1, points a) and b) of the Criminal Procedure Code of BiH, namely due to the risk of flight of the suspects who would become unavailable to judicial authorities by leaving BiH, and the risk that they might obstruct the investigation, conceal evidence, or influence witnesses or accomplices while at liberty.
 
The suspects are under investigation by the Prosecutor's Office of BiH and are suspected of having, on 26.11. of this year, with the intention of gaining unlawful property benefit, transported two individuals, citizens of Lebanon and Libya, whom they had previously picked up in Vienna, knowing that the transported persons did not meet the conditions for legal crossing of the state border, nor did they meet the conditions for legal entry and residence or domicile in BiH, thereby enabling them to illegally cross the state border, from the territory of the Republic of Croatia into BiH, and then continued towards the border between BiH and Montenegro.

The smugglers and smuggled persons were discovered in the border area in the vicinity of Gacko, by the BiH Border Police, during border surveillance and control of a passenger motor vehicle BMW, with national registration plates of the Republic of Austria, after which they were deprived of liberty and brought under control. The found illegal migrants were handed over to members of the BiH Service for Affairs with Foreigners for further processing.  

They are suspected of having committed the criminal offense of human smuggling under Article 189, Paragraph 1 of the Criminal Code of BiH, all in conjunction with Article 29 of the same Law. The Prosecutor's Office of BiH and the Border Police, together with partner agencies, undertake activities almost daily in prosecuting criminal offenses related to illegal migrations in Bosnia and Herzegovina.