The witness of the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), Dragisa Mekic, told yesterday at the trial of Selmo Cikotic, who is accused of damaging the BiH budget by 9.7 million BAM while he was the Minister of Defense of BiH, that he was aware of the contract between the Ministry of Defense and the company “Scout” from Zagreb on the sale of weapons and military equipment.
Mekic, who is an assistant minister in the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations in the Council of Ministers, stated that as part of his job, he coordinates the processes of issuing permits, military equipment, and weapons.
He explained that the company “Scout” did not directly apply for export permits, since according to the laws in BiH, only a registered legal entity in BiH can apply for this business, stating that “Scout” was approached by mediators “Unis”, “Unis Group”, and “TRZ” Hadzici.
He said that the company “TRZ” from Hadzici received permits for the export of ammunition and rockets in 2010, and that on January 16th of that year, a permit was issued for the export of two million pieces of ammunition.
The witness said that he knows that also, on August 3rd, 2010, a license was issued to the company “TRZ” for the export of 20.000 rockets.
Zeljka Klobucar, who from 2008 to 2012 worked at the Office of Attorney General of BiH, also testified.
She said that she remembers that, as attorney general, she gave an opinion on the contract on the sale of weapons between the Ministry of Defense and the company “Scout”.
“Office of Atorney General protects the property and property interests of BiH and one of its tasks is to give an opinion on contracts worth more than 10.000 BAM,” said Klobucareva, stating that, at the request of the Ministry of Defense, it was checked whether the annex to the contract had all the elements in accordance with the Law of obligations.
The indictment accuses Cikotic that in the period from 2009 to 2011, with the aim of obtaining benefits, he used his official position and favored the company “Scout” from Zagreb.
As stated, Cikotic, contrary to the Agreement on the final disposal of all rights and obligations over the movable property from 2008, and the decisions of the BiH Presidency, made and signed two decisions on approving the delivery, i.e. exchange of goods, and four decisions on the delivery of ammunition.
According to the indictment, he concluded four annexes to the basic contracts on the sale of unpromising weapons and ammunition concluded in 2003 and 2004.
The trial is scheduled to continue on November 29th.
E.Dz.
