The Cantonal Prosecutor’s Office of the Tuzla Canton submitted to the judge for the preliminary proceedings of the Tuzla Cantonal Court a proposal to order a detention measure for Mirsad Bakalović (49), former director of the Tuzla Retirement Home, and Zinaida Razić Halilović (46), head of the Department for Economic, Financial, Accounting and General Affairs at the Home and a member of the Board of Directors. They are suspected of having committed, as accomplices, the criminal offense of serious criminal offenses against the general safety of people and property in connection with the criminal offense of causing general danger, and Bakalović for the prolonged criminal offense of abuse of position or authority.
We remind you that the suspects are charged with the fact that, as responsible persons in the Public Institution “Retirement Home” Tuzla, in the period from February 2024 to November 4, 2025, they deliberately failed to organize and implement the prescribed fire protection measures and the general safety of users, even though they knew that it was a high-risk facility included in the first category of fire risk and in which particularly vulnerable categories of users reside (where 180 elderly users are housed) age, of which 110 are seriously ill, immobile or disabled).
According to the results of the investigation so far, Bakalović and Razić-Halilović are suspected of not providing the prescribed number of medical, nursing and other staff in night shifts in relation to the number of users, even though they knew that such a number of staff could not ensure even the minimum conditions for the general safety of users, as well as supervision and evacuation, especially in extraordinary circumstances such as a fire.
Bakalović is also suspected of not implementing mandatory safety measures in the facility, which is why an adequate early warning and fire prevention system was not established, technical conditions for safe smoke extraction and evacuation of users were not ensured, supervision of compliance with the ban on the use of electrical devices was not carried out, and the accommodation schedule of users was not organized in accordance with their mobility and health condition.
In the order to conduct the investigation, it was stated that these omissions had the effect of endangering the safety of a large number of people, and when a fire broke out in the room of one of the users on November 4, 2025, which quickly began to spread, it caused the death of a large number of users of the Tuzla Retirement Home, who due to their health condition were unable to protect themselves or evacuate, and more than 30 people were injured.
Also, Mirsad Bakalović is accused of using his position as the director of the institution to conclude employment contracts and assign two employees to fire protection and night receptionist jobs contrary to legal requirements, without prescribed professional qualifications, thereby further infringing the rights of users and employees to safety and to the protection of life and health.
In the course of the investigation so far, a large number of witnesses have been heard, the findings and opinions of a team of construction and architectural experts and fire protection experts have been submitted to the Prosecutor’s Office, and the videos of exempted video surveillance have been reviewed.
It is an extensive, voluminous and complex investigation that will be continued in the coming period in order to further determine the responsibility of other persons in connection with this tragic fire.
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