Fikret Abdic, mayor of the northwestern Velika Kladusa municipality, was apprehended on Thursday under the suspicion of official misconduct, according to the Police Administration of Bosnia's Federation (FBiH) entity.

The operation codenamed ‘Mreza’ (Network) within which the police officers raided the municipality building and apprehended six persons was carried out at the order of the Prosecutor's Office of Una-Sana Canton (USK), one of the ten FBiH's subregions.

“The Prosecutor's Office is carrying out an investigation into the criminal activities committed in the period since 2016 until today, which refer to the municipality head, civil servants employed in Velika Kladusa Municipality and the responsible person from a suspected legal entity in the public procurement procedure where Velika Kladusa Municipality is a contracting authority,” said USK Prosecutor's Office.

Abdic is among other things suspected of the malfeasance in office in the period from 2017 through 2019, acting opposite to the USK Law on Civil Service and the Law on Salaries and Compensations in USK Institutions, increasing the salaries for certain employers of Velika Kladusa municipality and their promotion.

The persons apprehended within this operation will be subject to further procedures.

Abdic's nomination for the post in the 2016 local elections came into the spotlight due to his wartime past and political background.

Abdic is considered a “traitor” among the Bosniak political establishment. He was convicted of the war crimes committed against Bosniaks in the northwestern Bosnia during the early 1990s, where he established the ‘Autonomous Province of Western Bosnia’. He was released in 2012 after serving 15 years in prison.