Prosecutor's Office of BiH on the Viaduct Case: Assigned to the Prosecuting Prosecutor

(Patria) - The Prosecutor's Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina received a letter on March 28 regarding the "Viaduct" case, and this notification has been "assigned to the prosecuting prosecutor", say the Prosecutor's Office of BiH.

Bosnia and Herzegovina lost an arbitration dispute initiated by Viaduct Portorož, due to the termination of a concession agreement signed by Viaduct with the Government of Republika Srpska, which had granted a concession on the same land to another company.

Furthermore, the Government of Republika Srpska, by an agreement with the Council of Ministers of BiH in 2017, committed to settling all obligations, but failed to do so. The obligations exceed 110 million KM and continue to grow due to a daily interest of 9,000 euros, and have become payable to the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Also, the former State Attorney of BiH, Mlađan Mandić, stated in the media in recent days that there was a possibility of an amicable settlement of the dispute and that an amount of one million euros was mentioned, but the Government of Republika Srpska refused it.

Bearing all this in mind, as well as the fact that BiH officials have recently frequently mentioned the Prosecutor's Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina, we were interested to know if the Prosecutor's Office of BiH, or if it will, open a case on this matter and in what phase it is. Because they are certainly aware of the case, and there is also something called "ex officio".

An answer arrived from the Prosecutor's Office of BiH today, as they respond to media inquiries exclusively on Fridays.

"The letter, or rather the notification, was received from the Prosecutor's Office of BiH on March 28 of this year and assigned to the prosecuting prosecutor. Also, a report from a law firm concerning the mentioned matter has been received. A previous case related to the mentioned companies (Viaduct and HES Vrbas), by decision of the prosecuting prosecutor, was forwarded for competent proceedings to the District Prosecutor's Office in Banja Luka on September 29, 2022", is the answer from the Prosecutor's Office of BiH.

The legal team of Viaduct filed a criminal complaint with the Prosecutor's Office of BiH against the Council of Ministers and the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina because they believe that these two institutions did not approach this problem with sufficient urgency.

The Prosecutor's Office of BiH did not provide details about what the previous case entailed, writes Faktor.