The indictment in the "Respiratori" case will be filed very soon, it was confirmed yesterday for "Dnevni Avaz" from several sources close to the investigation and the judicial authorities. This is the case related to the import of 100 respirators from China to B&H at a price of 10.5 million KM, which have never been put into operation.
Dozens of witnesses
Last week, the verification of these devices was stopped. This verification is the only relevant way for determining whether respirators are in order and can they be used to treat patients with coronavirus. Earlier, during the attempt to divide respirators among hospitals, it was determined that they had a system failure.
The investigation of the Prosecutor's Office of B&H in this case includes Fadil Novalic, Prime Minister of the Federation of B&H, Fahrudin Solak, suspended director of the Federal Civil Protection Administration (FCPA), Fikret Hodzic, owner of the company "Srebrna malina" which imported respirators and Aleksandar Zolak, director of the Agency for medicines and medical devices of B&H.
Novalic, Solak and Hodzic were arrested as a result of this affair, but the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina refused to order their detention, so they are released pending trial. All three are suspected of money laundering and abuse of official positions, and that the devices were procured without any cover.
During the investigation, dozens of witnesses were interogated - from Sebija Izetbegovic, Jelka Milicevic, Ana Bavrka, Edita Kalajdzic to Asim Sarajlic, who was recently fined 3,000 KM for refusing to give his mobile phone password to prosecutors. He has been questioned several times in the past couple of months, and as we were told unofficially, currently he has the witness status.
At the end of the month on November 28th, it will be exactly six months since the Prosecutor's Office of B&H issued an order to expand the investigation against Novalic. Apart from him, a few days earlier, the Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina issued an order to conduct an investigation against Hodzic and Solak.
What the law states
According to the B&H Criminal Procedure Law, the Article 225., if the prosecutor does not complete the investigation within six months from the issuance of the order to conduct the investigation, he will have to inform the Chief Prosecutor,respectively the Collegium of Prosecutors, in order to extend the deadline.
However, according to the information that „Avaz“ received, the Prosecution may request an additional deadline and does not have to complete the investigation within this period, but the indictment is almost completed. In the following days,it will see the light of day and sent to the Court for confirmation.
Right to remain silent
The suspect Hodzic was questioned again in the Prosecutor's Office few days ago, but the questions were related to the company "Srebrena malina" and the re-search which was done by the order of this judicial institution. Then, as we published, his mobile phone was confiscated. He defended himself in this institution with right to remain silent.