The United States (US.) has so far placed dozens of individuals from the Western Balkans on its sanctions list. Quite often, those are government officials and people in power.
Milorad Dodik received the first sanctions from the U.S.Ministry of Finance in January 2017. The then ambassador of the U.S. to Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), Maureen Cormack, announced that Dodik was sanctioned for disobeying the decision of the Constitutional Court of BiH on the ban on organizing a referendum.
In September 2018, Nikola Spiric was blacklisted by the U.S.for his involvement in significant corruption, according to a statement from the State Department.
Spiric has long been a high-ranking official of the SNSD, Milorad Dodik’s party, and a long-time deputy in the houses of the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH (PABiH).
Fadil Novalic was added to the list of sanctions in October 2022 due to misuse of pensioners’ personal data for the benefit of his political party, before the 2018 elections, the U.S. Treasury Department stated.
In his capacity as prime minister of the Federation of BiH (FBiH) entity, Fadil Novalic misused the personal data of pensioners in favor of the Party of Democratic Action (SDA), in violation of BiH laws, the U.S. Treasury Department announced on October 3rd.
On April 11th, 2022, the U.S. Ministry of Finance published a list of sanctions for acts of corruption, which include seven people from the Western Balkans, and one of them is Gordana Tadic, the former chief prosecutor of the BiH Prosecutor’s Office.
The U.S. Ministry of Finance included Diana Kajmakovic, prosecutor of the Prosecutor’s Office of BiH, on the “blacklist” on September 26th, 2022.
Marinko Cavara was added to the U.S. sanctions list in June 2022. The former president of FBiH and a member of the Croatian Democratic Union in BiH (HDZ), he was responsible for nominating judges for the Constitutional Court of FBiH.
Alen Seranic has been on the U.S. sanctions list since June 2022.“Seranic continued to promote the secessionist activities of the Republika Srpska (RS) because he led the process of adopting the Law on Medicines and Medical Devices of the RS, which his ministry sent to the National Assembly of the RS (NARS) for consideration. This law provides for the establishment of a new agency only within the RS, which would disrupt the powers of the state Agency for Medicines and Medical Devices,” the U.S.Treasury Department said.
Osman Mehmedagic was placed on the U.S. blacklist in March 2023. In the explanation, it is stated that, in his capacity as the general director of the Intelligence and Security Agency (OSA) of BiH, Osman “Osmica” Mehmedagic misused the state telecommunications company in favor of the Party of Democratic Action (SDA), one of the largest political parties in BiH.
Mirsad Kukic, a former member of the House of Representatives of the PABiH, has been on the State Department’s sanctions list since January 2022 due to “involvement in significant corrupt activities”, according to the statement of U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Slobodna Evropa reports.
E.Dz.
