A media conference was held at the Tuzla Canton Prosecutor’s Office on Wednesday, where the progress in the investigation into human trafficking was presented. The investigation relates to the exploitation of two girls born in 2009 for the purpose of prostitution, and so far eight people have been arrested – among them four police officers and one university professor.
“This is a procedure that is secret by law, the discretion of that procedure is guaranteed by law and all other international documents, and all the measures prescribed by laws and international documents are aimed at protecting the integrity of minors who are the subject of criminal proceedings,” said the chief prosecutor of the Prosecutor’s Office, Vedran Alidžanović.
“I again ask and appeal to you to refrain from presenting any details of this procedure, any details about the execution of the criminal act, the identity of the minors in order to ensure their protection”, he said in an address to the media.
He says that due to irresponsibility, the integrity of the mentioned children has already been damaged.
“Because of irresponsible individuals, the integrity of these children who are in the process has already been violated. We must maintain secrecy in this phase of the investigation, where we must investigate all the circumstances related to the execution of this criminal act.”
“First knowledge in August”
He also told how they first learned about the crime in August.
“We received the first information about this crime and criminal offense sometime in August, and since then we started working with the investigators to collect evidence and carry out actions that now culminated when searches were carried out at the locations that are the subject of our investigation. In three months, the investigation was conducted successfully, no information was leaked during the investigation. This speaks in favor of the professionalism and honor of the police officers who represent the majority. There are chaff in every grain and there are individuals who resort to the side criminal offense, even this kind of criminal offense”.
Investigation in the second phase
He also added that the investigation has entered the second phase until all the actors are identified and the suspects detained.
“The investigation has entered the second phase, it will last until all the circumstances of this case are determined, until all the users of those services and the actors were determined. We will work to prosecute the perpetrators of all criminal acts, even if they are officials. It is very difficult to investigate your colleagues because it is a professional and human challenge,” said the chief prosecutor of the TK Prosecutor’s Office Vedran Alidžanović.
Video: Vijesti.ba
The prosecutor specialized in working with children and minors in criminal proceedings, Lejla Gazibegović – Begović, spoke about the way judicial institutions act in such sensitive cases and how the protection of child victims is ensured.
“The work of prosecutors in cases in which children are harmed is based on compliance with the law on the protection and treatment of children and minors in criminal proceedings, the criminal code of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the law on criminal procedure of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. What is very important is that we must respect the interests of the investigation, but also the interests of the children themselves,” Gazibegović – Begović pointed out.
The prosecutor reminded that the law was recently amended, which introduced a new criminal offense in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina – violation of a child’s privacy.
“Any person who discloses any information from the private and family life of a child in any way will be held criminally liable. Penalties ranging from fines to imprisonment for up to three years are prescribed,” she stressed.
Speaking about the hearing procedure, the prosecutor explained in detail how such cases are handled in order to protect children as much as possible.
“Children are interrogated in the presence of a psychologist from a separate room. The child is with the psychologist in one room, while the prosecutors and all other persons participating in the proceedings are in another. In this way, we want to protect the child from all participants in the proceedings and enable him to testify freely,” she explained.
The prosecutor added that the same principles are applied during the trial.
“The court automatically gives children the status of threatened witnesses, so the child is heard from a separate room. None of the defense attorneys or the accused can ask questions directly, but the judge passes them on to the child,” said Gazibegović – Begović.
She also pointed out that the public’s interest is understandable, but that protecting the identity of children must be an absolute priority: “I welcome the public’s interest in this event, but I must note that we are prohibited from publishing information that could reveal the identity of a child. Even information about suspects must not be published if it would violate the privacy of the victim,” she added.
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.
(TYPE/Source: N1)
