Six people, including House of Representatives MP and leader of the Social Democrats (SDBiH) party, Enver Bijedic, were arrested on Thursday morning on suspicion of receiving bribes and trading in influence regarding the alleged rigging of a tender procedure for a private company.

Based on an order by the Tuzla Canton Prosecutor’s Office and Court, Bosnia’s State Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA) conducted searches of persons and residential and business buildings at several locations in Tuzla, Gracanica and Zivinice, related to the six suspects, SIPA spokesman Luka Miladinovic told N1.

The raids came after an investigation, which lasted several months, into possible illegal activities regarding the setting up of a tender, worth millions of Bosnian Marks, for a company from Gracanica to drill exploration and exploitation wells in the Tetima rock salt deposit, which is within the competencies of the Tuzla Salt Mine.

Tenders for this operation were allegedly annulled several times in order to benefit this company, which ended up with the company winning the bid although it has neither the personnel nor material resources to perform these works.

Among those suspects is Enver Bijedic, the leader of the Social Democrats (SD).

“He is suspected of leading that group that associated for the purpose of committing criminal acts,” Tuzla Canton Prosecutor’s Office spokesperson, Admir Arnautovic, told N1, explaining that the group is suspected of two crimes.