The judgment in the “Sarajlić and others” case was pronounced yesterday in the Municipal Court in Sarajevo, in which Asim Sarajlić was acquitted of the criminal offense of “Giving a gift and other forms of benefit”.
The second defendant Sabahudin Delalić and the third defendant in this case, Muhamed Šehović, were also acquitted, according to the Court’s first-instance ruling.
The trial in the said case began in May last year, when Sarajlić, Delalić and Šehović pleaded not guilty.
Sarajlić, Delalić and Šehović were accused that from February 20 to 25, 2020, before the election of the president of the SDA Cantonal Committee in Sarajevo, they arranged a meeting with Velid Tvrtković, one of the delegates of the electoral convention, through Šehović.
Sarajlić and Delalić promised Tvrtković that, using party influence, they would employ his wife if he voted for Fikret Prevljak to be the president of the Sarajevo SDA, and not the mayor of Novi Grad Sarajevo Municipality Semir Efendić, otherwise Prevljak’s opponent.
The main evidence and the trigger of the investigation is the audio recording of the purchase, which was published on Facebook by Semir Efendić, who was one of the candidates for the election.
On the disputed recording, the trio is heard promising the employment of Velid Tvrtković’s wife in exchange for a vote for Fikret Prevljak. The case became known to the public as the “Asim” affair.
During the trial, the prosecutor pointed out that the accused indicated to Tvrtković that in a similar way in 2016, they facilitated the election of Abdulah Skaka as mayor of Sarajevo.
In the end, the court acquitted them of the charges, and it is to be expected that the Canton Sarajevo Prosecution will file an appeal against this first-instance verdict.
Asim Sarajlić ended up on the black list of the United States of America last year. After this affair, he was dismissed from all positions in the SDA, and until recently he was a delegate in the House of Peoples of the BiH Parliament, Klix.ba reports.
Photo courtesy of Klix.ba
