Čaušević Case: Špirić's Lawsuit Will Not Stop Us from Revealing the Truth About Crime!

After the news agency Patria published a statement in which the former director of the Indirect Taxation Authority of BiH, Kemal Čaušević, revealed to investigators of the BiH Prosecutor's Office the names involved in multi-million euro crime that damaged the state budget, the pressure on Patria's editorial office continues.

The statement, which Patria's editorial office published on 25 pages, mentions the names of the highest officials in the government of Bosnia and Herzegovina, including the current member of the BiH Presidency Dragan Čović, state Minister of Finance Nikola Špirić, Vjekoslav Bevanda, and others, who Čaušević claims have damaged the BiH budget by tens of millions of KM for personal financial gain.

Čaušević revealed to investigators how Špirić, for personal gain, influenced the owners of "Bimal" to be exempted from sugar import tax, thereby damaging the state budget by as much as 60 million KM in just six years, and in return, according to the statement of the former director of the ITA, received a bribe.

Former Deputy State Minister of Finance Fuad Kasumović, who held that position when Špirić served as Minister of Finance, revealed to Patria that the bribe amounted to more than two million KM.

Due to the publication of Čaušević's statement, Špirić filed a lawsuit against Patria with the court in Sarajevo, and Dragan Čović has also announced the same.

Špirić claims that he suffered emotional distress due to Patria's reporting.

Due to the pressure from Čović and Špirić, the news agency Patria has engaged a reputable BiH lawyer, Vasvija Vidović, who will defend Patria's editorial office against the announced lawsuit by the HDZ leader, while another reputable lawyer will represent us in the case against Špirić.

Regardless of the lawsuits, which are an obvious pressure on our agency, we state that we will continue to publish the truth and all documentation we obtain that testifies to crime and corruption, especially that concerning high-ranking officials.