The US Embassy in Sarajevo rejected alleged interference in judicial proceedings in Bosnia and Herzegovina, calling them “false and misleading.”

“The United States strongly supports independent and courageous law enforcement, prosecutorial, and judicial institutions that work on behalf of the citizens of this country to investigate, prosecute, and punish corruption, which is plaguing Bosnia and Herzegovina's democracy and economy, and which is driving so many citizens of this country to leave and build lives for themselves and their families elsewhere,” the embassy said on Wednesday.

The statement comes after a first-instance verdict in the ‘Ventilators’ case, in which the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina ruled that prime minister of the Federation entity Fadil Novalic, CEO of the ‘Srebrena malina’ company Fikret Hodzic and suspended chief of the Federation's Civil Protection Administration Fahrudin Solak are guilty of charges from the indictment referring to controversial procurement of China-made ventilators amidst Covid pandemic.

The defense strongly objected the verdict, calling it politically motivated. Novalic's attorney Vasvija Vidovic said it was “completely inappropriate” that even the US Embassy commented on this case.

State court finds Federation PM guilty for controversial ventilators purchase

“Sadly, it is against all rules to interfere in a case. That proved a strong interest to have the case end like this,” she said.

But, the embassy denied the allegations, pointing out the presence of corruption in institutions.

“Survey after survey and metric after metric underscore that citizens do not trust these institutions and that corruption is getting worse. We have always urges BiH's judicial institutions to hold the powerful accountable for their actions. Accusations that the United States Embassy influenced any aspect of these, or any other judicial proceedings are false and misleading. We strongly reject them,” the embassy underlined.