Bosnia ex-Security Minister Charged with Corruption

The Prosecution office in Bosnia and Herzegovina has charged former Security Minister Dragan Mektic, Igor Golijanin, Samir Agic and Edin Garaplija with abuse of position over the implementation of an interstate project on cross-border cooperation in fire fighting, which the European Union's Delegation to Bosnia had financed. They are suspected of causing criminal damage of more than 240,000 KM, equal to about 120,000 euros.

The Prosecution said that the project in question had covered procurement of fire-fighting equipment, recruitment of human resources, as well as the purchase of materials from persons and close relatives, through which unlawful proceeds were obtained.  

Mektic, Minister of Security in the state government from 2015 to December, is a member of the main Bosnian Serb opposition party, the Serbian Democratic Party, SDS, and a long-time critic of Zoran Tegeltija, who comes from the ruling Bosnian Serb party and is now chairman of Bosnia's Council of Ministers - the de facto state government.

He was axed when Tegeltija formed the new state government in December, and replaced by Fahrudin Radoncic.

He has also crossed swords with Tegeltija's patron, Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik, former president of the Republika Srpska and now Serbian member of the state presidency.

He has long claimed that his hostility to corruption has earned him powerful enemies. When the prosecution announced it was starting an investigation into him in May, Mektic told BIRN that the claims were nonsense.

"The prosecution, which should be dealing with the fight against massive and serious organised crime, is dealing with its critics - and I am one of them. I'm a critic because I claim they are corrupt, incompetent and criminalized," Mektic...