Having deliberated on a motion of the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina /BiH/ to order pre-trial custody in the case of Rajo Kikić, the Court of BiH issued a Decision on 19 March 2020 ordering the suspect Rajo Kikić into pre-trial custody. The pre-trial custody under this decision may last pending a new decision of the Court, but not exceeding a period of one month running from the date of arrest, i.e. until 18 April 2020. The pre-trial custody is ordered due to existence of general and particular grounds for custody under Article 132(1)(d) of the Criminal Procedure Code of BiH. Namely, this criminal offense is punishable by imprisonment for a term of 10 years or a heavier penalty, and pre-trial custody is necessary to for the safety of citizens and property taking into account the manner of perpetration or consequences of the criminal offense.
The Prosecutor’s Office of BiH petitioned that the suspect Rajo Kikić be ordered into pre-trial custody on a grounded suspicion that he committed the criminal offense of Receiving Gifts and Other Forms of Benefit under Article 217(1) of the Criminal Code of BiH. According to the motion, on 16 March 2020 the suspect Rajo Kikić was working as an official person in an institution of BiH–border police officer, Border Police of BiH, at Brčko International Border Crossing. When three individuals showed up at Brčko Border Crossing, they did not possess travel documents but only ID cards which they showed to the suspect. According to a Decision by the Council of Ministers of 15 March 2020 on prescribing additional requirements to be met by foreign nationals in order to be allowed entry to Bosnia and Herzegovina, the three individuals should have been banned from entering BiH because they were arriving from a territory with an intensive transmission of the corona virus or they should have been denied the entry to BiH because the same Decision stipulates that a foreign national may enter into BiH only if he/she possesses a valid passport.
Rather than banning or denying the entry of those individuals to BiH, the suspect Rajo Kikić requested and received money from them so that he, within the scope of his official function, would refrain from an act that he is obligated to perform. The suspect instructed the driver to put money in the vehicle registration certificate; the driver complied and put a €20 note in the vehicle registration certificate. Having taken the money, he allowed all three individuals to illegally enter BiH, additionally failing to instruct them to undergo mandatory health inspection procedure.
