Former Minister of Security of Bosnia and Herzegovina Selmo Cikotić has been sentenced to three years in prison, the Prosecutor’s Office of BiH announced.
As announced, Cikotić’s first-instance verdict from December of the previous year was confirmed.
“Although the prosecution’s appeal regarding the amount of the sentence was rejected, the prosecution emphasizes the importance of the final conviction in the high-level corruption case in which the accused, in his capacity as the former Minister of Defense of BiH, was sentenced to prison for the criminal offense of abuse of office or authority under Article 220 of the Criminal Code of BiH,” the Prosecutor’s Office of BiH announced.
As a reminder, Cikotić was charged with abusing his official position in the period from 2009 to 2011 and favoring the company “Scout” from Zagreb, which was supposed to buy surplus weapons from BiH, thereby damaging the state budget by 9.7 million BAM.
As alleged in the indictment filed by the Prosecutor’s Office of BiH, Cikotić, contrary to the agreement on the final disposal of all rights and obligations over movable property from 2008 and the decisions of the Presidency of BiH, issued and signed two decisions approving the delivery, or rather the exchange of goods, as well as four decisions on the delivery of ammunition. According to the indictment, he approved four annexes to the basic contracts for the sale of unpromising weapons and ammunition concluded in 2003 and 2004.