Bosnian Leaders Indicted

Published: 27 April 2009

By

Dragan Covic
Dragan Covic
The head of Bosnia main Croat political party and a former senior Bosnian Muslim official were charged with abuse of office by Bosnia’s top court April 23. Croatian Democratic Union president Dragan Ćović and former prime minister Edhem Bičakčić are accused of siphoning €3.9 from various budget funds to buy apartments for more than 52 civil servants in 1999, when Bicakcic was prime minister and Čović was finance minister of the Muslim-Croat Federation. The Federation is one of two entities making up post-war Bosnia.

Among those who allegedly received money for an apartment was current Federation prime minister Nedžad Branković, whom a lower court earlier this month charged with abuse of office over the government’s decision to buy a €130,000 apartment for Branković. Bičakčić was also charged by the lower court.

Both Have Checkered Histories

Though neither Bičakčić nor Čović have been convicted of any crimes in post-war Bosnia, both men have lengthy dossiers. The same court indicted Čović in 2005 for allegedly using his position as finance minister to help a prominent meat-packing company evade millions of euros in income tax and customs fees. He was then sacked by Bosnia’s high representative – a European governor-general who has the powers to fire officials and impose laws – from his position in Bosnia’s three-man rotating presidency. Čović, who was also charged with bribing a senior judge, ultimately walked free.  

Edhem Bicakic
Edhem Bicakic
Bičakčić’s first run-in with the authorities was in 2001, when the high representative sacked him as general manager of the state electricity utility, citing Bičakčić’s misappropriation of some €2 million in public funds while Bicakcic had served as Federation prime minister. Bičakčić had also come under fire for waiving charges against customs evaders who had illegally imported 900 cars into Bosnia. Though he was banned from public office, an international audit in 2003 found him to be again working for the electricity utility as an advisor. He was again sacked.

According to corruption watchdog Transparency International, Bosnia’s most corrupt institutions include, inter alia, political parties and the two entity governments – those of the Federation and the Serb Republic.

--Beth Kampschror