SARAJEVO (Reuters) – A Bosnian regional premier and two other men were sentenced to up to six years in jail on Wednesday on charges of embezzlement over the purchase of defective ventilators for COVID patients in 2020 via a raspberry-processing firm.
Fadil Novalic, the prime minister of Bosnia’s autonomous Bosniak-Croat Federation, was sentenced to four years for abuse of office and violations of a law on public tenders.
Lawyers of all three men, who denied wrongdoing, said they would appeal the verdict and they remain free for the time being.
This is the first time that a senior official has been sentenced to a prison term for embezzlement in Bosnia, which has been plagued by corruption scandals.
Novalic’s lawyer Vasvija Vidovic said the case was fabricated by the media and that the sentence was politically motivated.
Novalic, along with Fahrudin Solak, an official in charge of procuring equipment to combat the pandemic, and Fikret Hodzic, the manager of the company that procured the ventilators, were briefly detained in May 2020 after the prosecutors’ initial report showed the ventilators could not be used for the adequate treatment of patients in intensive care units.
Hodzic and Solak were sentenced to five and six years in prison respectively.
Finance Minister Jelka Milicevic, who was accused of negligence for enabling the ventilators’ purchase, was acquitted of all charges.
Bosnia company Srebrena Malina, the raspberry processor, which had no licence to import medical equipment, was chosen by the region’s crisis headquarters to import the Chinese ventilators for 10.5 million Bosnian marka ($5.8 million) and other medical equipment when the pandemic took hold in April 2020 and rules on procurement were relaxed.
The relaxation allowed for direct bargaining with suppliers rather than via public tender.
Novalic, who remains in office, has headed the regional government since 2015 after political bickering prevented the formation of a new administration after an election in 2018.
His party blocked the formation of a regional government again after a vote in October, despite dropping out of ruling coalition at state and regional levels.
(1$ = 1.794 Bosnian marka)
(Reporting by Daria Sito-Sucic; Editing by Alison Williams)
