The Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) has requested the extension of detention for Ranko Debevec, suspended president of the Court of BiH, and Osman Mehmedagic, former director of the Intelligence-Security Agency (OSA), due to the danger that their release could obstruct the investigation, conceal evidence, as well as influence witnesses or accomplices.
The Prosecutor’s Office of BiH states that they “have found new evidence and information and expanded the investigation against the mentioned suspects to multiple different events,” and therefore proposed to the Court an extension of detention for another 30 days.
According to the Court of BiH, the suspects Debevec and Mehmedagic are currently in detention according to a decision of this Court from January 16th, when the detention was extended for one month, until February 16th, 2024.
The hearing for the presentation of the Prosecutor’s Office’s proposal has not yet been scheduled.
During a previous hearing, the Prosecutor’s Office requested a two-month extension of detention for Debevec and Mehmedagic due to fears that they could continue destroying evidence and influencing witnesses, while the Defense proposed instead of detention, imposing restrictive measures.
In justifying the previous request for the extension of the detention measure, the Prosecutor’s Office of BiH stated that, through the investigation, they obtained information about nearly 60 additional orders for the implementation of special measures, which were destroyed.
Debevec and Mehmedagic are suspected of abuse of office and falsification of official documents, and they were arrested on December 19th.
During a press conference held the day after the arrests, Chief Prosecutor Milanko Kajganic stated that Debevec and Mehmedagic were arrested for abuse of office because they illegally wiretapped state judges and officials of the Prosecutor’s Office of BiH who were conducting investigations in several cases in 2020.
The first-instance disciplinary commission of the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council (HJPC) of BiH temporarily suspended Debevec from performing the duties of the president of the Court, at the request of the Office of the Disciplinary Prosecutor.
Mehmedagic was previously placed on the “blacklist” of the United States (U.S.) due to complicity in corruption. It was then stated that he used the state telecommunications company “BH Telecom” to gather mobile activities of BiH politicians not affiliated with the Party of Democratic Action, and instructed an individual to monitor a government official associated with an opposition party from the Republika Srpska (RS), Detektor reports.
E.Dz.
