Prosecutor's Office of BiH silent: Has the investigation in the Čaušević case been halted because he named politicians?

More than two years have passed since Kemal Čaušević, former director of the Indirect Taxation Authority of BiH, was arrested in a spectacular SIPA operation. In the police operation „Pandora“, Čaušević was arrested together with 53 individuals, including 30 members of the ITA and customs terminals, reports the Patria news agency. 

Čaušević and the others were arrested for corrupt criminal acts of organized crime, customs and tax evasion, money laundering, and abuse of position or authority related to the import of textile and other goods into BiH.

In the meantime, most of those arrested, including Čaušević, have been released.

Although in his testimony, the former director of the ITA of BiH named specific names of high-ranking current and former officials of the SDA, HDZ BiH, and SNSD, and detailed their involvement, judging by the silence of the Prosecutor's Office of BiH, not much has been done.

Patria sent inquiries to the Prosecutor's Office of BiH on two occasions with questions related to the Pandora case, specifically regarding the progress of the investigation, but we received no response.

As a reminder, in his testimony, Čaušević admitted to investigators of the Prosecutor's Office of BiH that, at the insistence of Dragan Čović, the ITA purchased the Sokol building in Mostar in 2009 for a price of 2 million KM, although an expert estimated the building's value at only around 900,000 KM.

Previously, the building was privatized from Sokol by Čović's friends, while Čović was the director of this former Mostar giant, at very favorable prices, and then sold to the Authority for two million KM, double the estimated value.

Čaušević's testimony given to investigators can be read HERE.