SDP BiH: Bakir Izetbegović must explain to whom SDA sold the hotel in Srebrenica

By selling the Sarajevo Tobacco Factory (FDS) to a phantom company with two employees, among other things, the SDA – SBB and HDZ government also sold the Hotel "Aura" in Srebrenica, which has been under construction since 2009. Thus, the owner of this hotel has now become Alexander Walter, a director in more than 36 companies and a person linked to money laundering worth several billion KM, which is already the subject of investigations across the EU, announced the SDP BiH, Patria reports.

Such an investor is certainly to the liking of Bakir's SDA, which has been using FDS as a party ATM for decades. We have no doubt that this practice will continue with the new owners. It was Bakir Izetbegović who, in 2009, together with FDS officials in Srebrenica, announced the construction of this hotel, and his current advisor for returnees and diaspora issues, Dževad Mahmutović, is a long-time member of the FDS Supervisory Board and Audit Committee.

According to available information, FDS has so far invested about 10 million KM in the construction, and the hotel was supposed to open first in 2011 and then in 2013. The last time it was ceremonially announced that it would start operating at the beginning of 2016. As is known, the hotel is still not operational.

The fate of this hotel is just one of many questions that the FBiH Government must answer at the session of the House of Representatives of the FBiH Parliament, the holding of which was requested by the SDP. According to the Rules of Procedure of this House, the session must be held no later than Friday, September 30. Therefore, we call on the Chairman of the House of Representatives of the FBiH Parliament, Edin Mušić, to urgently schedule a session based on the collected signatures, submitted in accordance with the rules of procedure, to discuss the sale of FDS. The SDP will not give up on insisting on the truth and stopping, at the very least, the suspicious sell-off of everything valuable.

Also, we call on Bakir Izetbegović and Fadil Novalić to inform the public who actually stands behind the phantom company that bought FDS and in whose hands the banks owned by FDS - hotels, shares in companies, and other assets will end up.

We again call on the competent prosecutor's offices to urgently get involved in this case, especially since a criminal complaint from the FBiH Financial Police about crimes committed during the construction of this hotel has existed since 2013, for which high-ranking SDA officials are suspected.

Bakir and his SDA's attitude towards state capital is best seen in the example of the complete absence of any desire to at least preserve this facility, which is more than necessary for Srebrenica, for the needs of the citizens of this city.