Increasing arrests of police officers in BiH

SARAJevo, (Patria) – Former head of the Drug Department of the State Investigation and Protection Agency, Bojan Cvijan, was sentenced to 20 years in prison as a member of an organized criminal group within the "Lutka" case. Before joining SIPA, Cvijan was the head of the criminal police of the Public Security Center East Sarajevo. He was convicted as a member of a group that operated from 2005 and is responsible for several criminal offenses to achieve common or individual unlawful property gain in money, material goods, or other forms of benefit. Two members of the group were employees of the Border Police and the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Sarajevo Canton at the time of committing the criminal offenses.

The group was found guilty of several serious criminal offenses, including the murder of Boris Govedarica in August 2007 in East Sarajevo, Vlatko Mačar, Rade Magazin, and Milan Vlaški in January 2008 in Pale, Zoran Golub Čarlama in front of his cafe "Sport" in East Sarajevo in August 2008, as well as the attempted murder of Đorđe Ždrale in East Sarajevo. They were also found guilty of multi-million dollar robberies of money transports from Pavlović bank, Privredna banka, and the Post Office, an attempted robbery of Nova banka's money transport, and a robbery at Sarajevo Post Office 2 at the train station.

In the past few months, security agencies have been shaken by scandals involving compromised personnel. The arrest of an inspector from the FUP Drug Department, who was leaking official secrets and information from investigations to criminals and drug dealers for money, has raised numerous questions within the security sector in BiH. In early April, five people were arrested in Sarajevo, including a police officer from the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Sarajevo Canton, suspected of abuse of office or authority, while the others were arrested for inciting prostitution, illegal production and trafficking of drugs, and illegal arms trade.

The media previously reported that for years, cadets were admitted to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Sarajevo Canton without security checks, which were abolished by the dismissed police commissioner Vahid Ćosić. In May 2013, the Unit for Professional Standards warned Commissioner Ćosić about the problem of admitting police officers without security checks, but Ćosić replied that the Police Administration did not have time for such security checks, as the funds allocated for cadet training had to be spent by the end of the year, and detailed security checks of future police officers would certainly postpone that deadline. Only in 2017 did the then police commissioner Mevludin Halilović issue a Decision on Security Checks.

Recently, nine police officers from the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Sarajevo Canton were dismissed after it was determined that there were security concerns regarding them. Checks were conducted by the State Investigation and Protection Agency and the Intelligence-Security Agency. Although the nature of these security concerns was never revealed, their access to documents marked "confidential," "secret," and "top secret" was revoked. One police officer was reinstated in the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Sarajevo Canton by court order.

Nedžad Korajlić, Dean of the Faculty of Criminal Justice, Criminology and Security Studies in Sarajevo, believes that such cases are a positive development.

"Whether this is a 'clean-up' of security agencies or a more serious approach due to all the problems in the security sector, I would not see it negatively, but positively, if it is all based on facts," says Korajlić.

He explains that the police must take measures if it is determined that someone has abused their authority.

"There is Internal Control, there is the Police Commissioner, so that those suspected of abusing their position and authority are suspended, which does not mean they are finally removed, as it is a process. This is general prevention for all those who might attempt to abuse their position and thus jeopardize the reputation of the police, and especially jeopardize people's lives, leaking information, etc."

Speaking about the system for employing police officers and security agency personnel, Korajlić points out that sometimes people simply "go bad."