Prosecutor's Office of BiH without an answer on who determined which private universities would be investigated

(Patria) - The Prosecutor's Office of BiH is investigating illegalities related to the issuance and sale of high school and university diplomas, and the Cluster operation conducted at the end of February included several private universities in both entities and Brčko District. The Prosecutor's Office of BiH did not answer Patria's inquiry on who determined that universities from Brčko, Travnik, Mostar, and Banja Luka were subject to investigation.

"Investigations and cases related to illegalities connected with the issuance and sale of high school and university diplomas are being conducted by the Prosecutor's Office of BiH, as well as entity prosecutor's offices (e.g., KT USK, KT Sarajevo, etc.).

The focus of the investigation in the 'Cluster' operation, conducted by the Prosecutor's Office of BiH together with SIPA, is on several private higher education institutions in both BiH entities and Brčko District of BiH.

An investigation is a dynamic process in which initial findings expand during evidence collection, and the circle of suspected natural or legal persons is potentially widened or narrowed by connecting individually collected evidence that points to a potentially suspected person, and that is the only factor directing the scope of the investigation. Suspects are not determined by the prosecutor's office or a prosecutor, but by collected evidence of their unlawful actions discovered during the investigation," stated the Prosecutor's Office of BiH.

We remind you that none of the ten individuals arrested in the Cluster operation were detained. Around BAM 450,000 was found during the searches, suspected to be from the sale of diplomas.

The investigation includes NUBL, UPS University, Prometej University, European University Brčko District, International University Travnik, University of Travnik, University of Modern Sciences "CKM" Mostar, and the Higher Education School "Union" Mostar, PIM University of Business Engineering and Management Banja Luka, and Aperion University, because from 2014 to the present, they have issued a currently undetermined number of forged diplomas for obtaining higher education and other public documents.