The Cantonal Court in Tuzla ordered the detention of eight persons who are suspected of having committed the criminal offense of human trafficking related to the exploitation of two girls born in 2009 for the purpose of prostitution, among whom are four officers of the Police Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of TK.
The detention measure was determined for police officers: Besim Kopić (51), Miralem Halilović (46), Jasmin Modrić (30) and Dževad Požegić (55), and for Šemsudin Kadrić (39), Zijad Jagodić (61), Sulejman Šehić (67) and Nedim Avdić (41).
˝Based on the evidence gathered during the investigation led by the Prosecutor’s Office of Tuzla Canton, it was established that there is a well-founded suspicion that all the suspects have committed criminal acts for which the investigation is being conducted against them. The detention of the suspects was determined for the reasons prescribed by Article 146, paragraph 1, point b) and c) of the FBiH Criminal Procedure Law, i.e. because there is a well-founded fear that they will destroy, hide, alter or falsify evidence or traces important for the criminal proceedings or that they will interfere with the criminal proceedings by influencing witnesses, and because of the existence of special circumstances that justify the fear of repeating the criminal offense, said the Tuzla Cantonal Court.
Kopić, Kadrić, Halilović, Modrić and Šehić are suspected of having recruited, lured, transported to different locations in the area of Kalesija, Živinice and Srebrenik, handed over and hid two fifteen-year-old girls for the purpose of exploitation through prostitution and other forms of sexual exploitation, and they also used their sexual services for which they were paid. Part of the money from sexual services, which the girls were forced to have with other people, was taken by the first suspect, Besim Kopić.
Jagodić, Požegić and Avdić are suspected of using their sexual services and paying them for it in the mentioned period, even though they were aware that the girls were minors and victims of human trafficking.
These are two girls whose development was hampered by difficult family circumstances and who were placed in social institutions in the Tuzla area, as well as the shelter of the Home for Children without Parental Care Tuzla, from where they ran away several times and were returned by police officers and centers for social work. The suspects took advantage of their escape from the institutions and their state of helplessness in order to recruit and lure them into prostitution and use their sexual services.
The Prosecutor’s Office of the Tuzla Canton, in cooperation with the investigators of the Criminal Police Sector-Department for Combating Organized and Computer Crime of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Turkey, conducted several months of investigation and worked on documenting these crimes.
Investigative actions in this case are continuing.
An appeal can be filed against this decision to the Council of the Cantonal Court in Tuzla through the judge for the preliminary proceedings, within 24 hours of receiving the decision.
(TIP/Photo: federalna.ba)
