Trial of Fikret Hodžić: Pašić amended the legal qualification of the indictment by transcribing the operative part of the first-instance verdict

(Patria) - The renewed trial of Fikret Hodžić and his company "F.H. Srebrena malina" continued today before the Appellate Panel of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), after the Constitutional Court of BiH overturned the verdict by which they were found guilty of abuse of office during the procurement of ventilators in 2020.

Mirna Avdibegović, Hodžić's lawyer, stated after the hearing that the prosecutor amended the indictment, charging Hodžić and the legal entity "FH Srebrena malina" with the criminal offenses of "abuse of office and authority" and "money laundering".

When asked by journalists what had changed compared to the previous indictment, she replied:

"What has changed is that the prosecutor transcribed the operative part of the first-instance verdict, regarding which the Constitutional Court of BiH stated that the doubt that it contains an offense for which Fikret Hodžić was not indicted has not been removed. You cannot view the indictment from this moment onwards; criminal proceedings are a whole and have been ongoing since the investigation, since the suspect's examination during the investigation before the indictment was filed, which is a prerequisite for conducting criminal proceedings, and further to the finality of the verdict.

The abuse did not exist from the very beginning, and the elements of the criminal offense of 'abuse of office' are not contained even in this factual description of the indictment, but we will address this later. All the arguments presented by the prosecutor today have already been rejected by the Constitutional Court."

She reiterated that the indictment does not contain the criminal offense with which Hodžić is charged.

"The elements of the criminal offense of abuse of office or authority are not contained in the operative part of the first-instance verdict at that time, the factual description of the confirmed indictment, nor in the indictment that the prosecutor now calls 'amended'," says Avdibegović.

State prosecutor Džermin Pašić, following the previous order of the Appellate Department of the Court of BiH, today read the amended indictment, which now charges Fikret Hodžić and the legal entity "FH Srebrena malina" with the criminal offenses of "abuse of office and authority" and "money laundering".

During the evidentiary proceedings at today's hearing, Fikret Hodžić's defense attorney, Mirna Avdibegović, conducted a comparative analysis of the records from the examination of the accused Fikret Hodžić under the factual description of the indictment.

Through this analysis, she determined that the criminal offense of abuse of office absolutely did not exist at that time, neither in the indictment nor in the examination records.

Therefore, she determined that the legal qualification of abuse of office did not exist in the factual description presented to Fikret Hodžić at that time.