Gibraltar Case: Prlić, Bakula and others to plead guilty

The plea hearing before the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina's Department II for Organized Crime, Economic Crime and Corruption, in the case of Stipe Prlić and others, is scheduled for August 13, 2015, starting at 11:00 AM, in courtroom 8, the BiH Court announced, reports the BiH news agency Patria.

The Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina confirmed on May 21, 2015, the indictment charging defendants Stipe Prlić and Zoran Bakula with the criminal offense of abuse of position or authority under Article 383, Paragraph 3, in conjunction with Paragraph 1 of the Criminal Code of FBiH, and the criminal offense of accepting bribes and other benefits under Article 380, Paragraph 1 of the Criminal Code of FBiH, and charging Neven Kulenović with the criminal offense of giving bribes and other benefits under Article 381, Paragraph 1 of the Criminal Code of FBiH.

The indictment states that defendants Stipe Prlić, as director – president of the Management Board, and Zoran Bakula, as a member of the Management Board of JP Hrvatske telekomunikacije d.o.o. Mostar, in the public procurement procedure for the development of the "Integrated strategy for planning and media procurement according to target groups of JP HT d.o.o. Mostar, and planning and media procurement in BiH" selected the most favorable bidder by choosing the legal entity SV-RSA d.o.o. Sarajevo, owned by the defendant Neven Kulenović.

The aforementioned legal entity was ranked third according to the recommendation of the public procurement commission, acting contrary to the provisions of Article 35, Paragraph 2 of the Law on Public Procurement of BiH and Article 14, Paragraphs 1 and 4 of the Instructions on the Application of the Law on Public Procurement of BiH. For these actions, the defendant Neven Kulenović, as the owner and deputy director of the legal entity SV-RSA d.o.o. Sarajevo, gave a bribe that they had previously agreed upon, through successive payments to Zoran Bakula's account in the amount of 386,256.86 KM and to Stipe Prlić's account in the amount of 331,513.18 KM. This bribe was accepted by defendants Zoran Bakula and Stipe Prlić in a manner that it was paid from the account of the legal entity "3 Media Limited" registered in Gibraltar, where the defendant Neven Kulenović was the authorized representative with general and special powers.