Bosnian State Court found prime minister of Bosnia's Federation entity Fadil Novalic guilty in the trial for controversial purchase of China-made ventilators amidst the Covid pandemic. Other two defendants, CEO of the 'Srebrena malina' company Fikret Hodzic and suspended chief of the Federation's Civil Protection Administration Fahrudin Solak were also found guilty, while entity finance minister Jelka Milicevic was acquitted of charges. Pročitaj više

Novalic was sentenced to four, Hodzic to five and Solak to six years of prison in the first-instance verdict.

In addition, the ‘Srebrena Malina’ company was ordered as a legal entity to pay a fine of 200,000 marks (approx. 100,000 euro) within 60 days and return almost 700,000 marks (approx. 350,000 euro), which is the amount that was acquired during the procurement of the ventilators.

The reading of the first-instance verdict commenced at 9 a.m., and the process was led by judge Branko Peric.

Novalic was not present in the courtroom.

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The three sentenced defendants were charged with money laundering, falsifying or destroying of business and commercial books, falsifying of official documents and violation of the duty to maintain commercial or business books and compile financial reports and their falsification or destruction, while Milicevic was charged with workplace negligence.

The indictment was confirmed on December 30, 2020, with the trial commencing on February 24 next year.

The process was launched following the 10.53 million marks (approx. 5.25 million euro) purchase of 100 ventilators amidst the Covid pandemic. The purchase was conducted in cooperation with the FBiH Government, the Civil Protection Administration and the ‘Srebrena malina’ company, which was described as a “huge deal” in equipping the hospitals across the entity.

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The government and the Civil Protection Administration hired the ‘Srebrena malina’ company for the procurement of the ventilators, which later appeared to be useless, while the actors in the process gained profit from the purchase.

Prosecutors in the case were Dzermin Pasic and Mirza Hukeljic, who presented evidence and other details in a three-hour long hearing.

Defence teams announced appeals to the verdict.

(1 euro = 1.95 Bosnian marks)