Police officers of the State Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA), under the supervision of the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina, conducted a search of a residential building in Sarajevo on Wednesday and detained four persons, citizens of Afghanistan.
Persons suspected of having demanded a ransom for three abducted persons, citizens of Iran and Switzerland, in the amount of 8,000 and 10,000 euros, have been deprived of their liberty. After that, the ransom was paid outside of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the persons were released.
“This organized group of kidnappers tortured and physically abused the abducted persons, during which they inflicted physical injuries on them, and one person ended up in hospital treatment,” SIPA said.
One of the persons deprived of liberty is connected with the crime of “murder” which was committed against one of the migrants in the Immigration Center “Lipa” in Bihać, which happened on December 31 last year. The face was killed by being stabbed with a knife.
The aforementioned activities were carried out due to the existence of grounds for suspicion that an organized group from the territory of Afghanistan committed the criminal offenses of “organized crime”, “organizing a group or association for the commission of the criminal offense of migrant smuggling” and “human smuggling” prescribed by the Criminal Code of Bosnia and Herzegovina and in connection with the criminal the crime of “kidnapping” from the Criminal Code of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina as well as other serious crimes for which persons are suspected of being deprived of their liberty.
Persons deprived of their liberty were taken to official premises where criminal processing is carried out on them.
During the work, cooperation was achieved with the police bodies of the Republic of Serbia and Switzerland, as well as Europol and Interpol of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
