Bosnia Federation Prime Minister Detained in ‘Respirators’ Affair’

Fadil Novalic, the caretaker Prime Minister of Bosnia's Federation entity, was detained Thursday overnight by the state law enforcement agency SIPA together with the head of the Civil Protection and the owner of a private company as part of an investigation into the purchase of allegedly overpriced Chinese respirators. 

Novalic, Fahrudin Solak, the suspended head of the Civil Protection, and Fikret Hodzic, a TV host who owns the Silver Raspberry (Srebrna malina) company that last month purchased 100 respirators for 10.5 million Bosnian marks [about 5.25 million euros], were questioned for several hours at SIPA headquarters in East Sarajevo. The trio were to be transferred to the State Prosecutor's office during Friday, Bosnian media reported.

The so-called "Respirators affair" has rocked the Federation, the larger of the two entities in Bosnia, and has clouded its response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Strict measures have kept the number of infections and deaths in this entity of Bosnia to 1,059 and 39 respectively. Bosnia has registered 2,462 cases of coronavirus and 139 deaths in total. Most other cases were registered in the other entity, Republika Srpska, and some in the District of Brcko. 

Novalic and Solak are both members of the main Bosniak party, the Party of Democratic Action, SDA, which rules in the Federation in coalition with the main Bosnian Croat party, the Croatian Democratic Union, HDZ, and another mainly Bosniak party. 

The Federation has been run by a caretaker government since the last general elections were held in Bosnia in October last year, as the main parties have still not agreed on a new ruling coalition. 

According to the Law in the Federation, if the prime minister is incapable of carrying out his...