SDS: SNSD is in a panic over the Bobar Bank case, it will soon be known who stole 10 million KM

The Serb Democratic Party emphasizes that the amendments to the Criminal Code of BiH adopted yesterday in the House of Representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH only bother corrupt politicians, criminals and terrorists, reports the Patria news agency.

-The amendments to the Criminal Code of BiH are not about any transfer of jurisdiction, but rather the stripping of powers from the Court of BiH, whose formation was enabled precisely by the SNSD.

The adopted amendments to the Criminal Code of BiH allow criminal acts of money laundering and human trafficking committed in the entities of RS and FBiH, as well as in the Brčko District, to be prosecuted at the entity level, i.e., before the judicial authorities of the district. Only criminal acts of an international or inter-entity character will remain under the jurisdiction of the Court of BiH.

By claiming that the adoption of amendments to the Criminal Code of BiH involves a transfer of jurisdiction, the SNSD wants to preserve legal loopholes in order to avoid and control the prosecution of crimes committed in Bobar Bank, Birač, Balkan Investment Bank, and other cases.

With the amendments to the Criminal Code of BiH, the Court of BiH has been stripped of its jurisdiction to prosecute criminal acts of human trafficking and money laundering committed on the territory of the entities, which until now had been prosecuted under the Criminal Code of BiH and the Law on the Court of BiH.

We remind the SNSD that it was they who gave the Court of BiH jurisdiction, according to Article 7, paragraph 2 of the Law on the Court of BiH, to be competent for criminal acts committed under the Criminal Code of Republika Srpska, the Federation of BiH, and the Brčko District when those criminal acts have repercussions or harmful consequences for the economy of BiH, and that under this article it can take over any case from the district prosecutor's offices and courts in Republika Srpska.

This possibility was also allowed by Article 209 of the Criminal Code of BiH.

Precisely because of these provisions, the District Court in Banja Luka declared itself incompetent in a large number of cases of drug trafficking, human trafficking, arms trafficking, and money laundering that have an international character and handed these cases over to the Prosecutor's Office of BiH, while cases of an international character prosecuted before district courts, after appeals were filed, were overturned by higher judicial instances due to the local incompetence of the district courts, and criminals were acquitted.

We also remind that the Special Prosecutor's Office of the RS declared itself incompetent in the Bobar Bank case, which is a legally correct decision because it concerns a criminal act committed on the territory of the entity and the Brčko District, as well as the transfer of money abroad.

The amendments to the Criminal Code of BiH have only prevented the dragging out of major crime cases through courts and prosecutor's offices, and have even stripped the Court of BiH of its previous jurisdictions.

The Court of BiH will no longer be able to prosecute human trafficking and money laundering committed on the territory of an entity or the Brčko District, while it will retain jurisdiction only over criminal acts of an international or inter-entity character.

We are aware that the SNSD is frightened by the cases of Bobar Bank, Balkan Investment Bank, and Birač, which they will no longer be able to hide in the drawers of prosecutors loyal to them, nor acquit criminals through judges close to them.

To hide their crime, they are ready to continue enabling money laundering for financing terrorism in BiH, which would cause BiH, and thus Republika Srpska, to end up on the blacklist of Moneyval, resulting in the halting of all financial flows towards Republika Srpska as well.

This means that remittances from abroad would be delayed for months and that the few foreign investors would leave the country. It is clear that the SNSD is in a state of paranoia because it will soon be known who stole 10 million KM from Bobar Bank and who enabled the robbery of 700 million euros from the Birač factory.

The Serb Democratic Party will fulfill its promise given to voters to work on clearing up these and other affairs, and we will not be stopped in this by any fabricated constructs and lies of the SNSD, the SDS announced.