COMPETENT INSTITUTIONS NO LONGER INTERESTED IN WHEREABOUTS OF WAR CRIMINAL AND FUGITIVE SAKIB MAHMULJIN

ISTOČNO SARAJEVO, SEPTEMBER 1 /SRNA/ – For more than three years, the competent institutions of BiH have done nothing to ensure that war criminal and fugitive Sakib Mahmuljin serves the prison sentence handed down to him for monstrous crimes against captured Serb civilians, medical personnel and soldiers in the Vozuća and Zavidovići areas in 1995.

Asked by SRNA about the latest activities of the Court of BiH concerning fugitive Mahmuljin, the institution said that no action had been taken since September 14, 2023, when the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Türkiye sent a diplomatic note informing the authorities that the convicted war criminal had not been located in that country.

"The latest actions taken by the Court of BiH with the aim of enforcing the final judgment and sending convicted person Sakib Mahmuljin to serve his prison sentence concerned his location and extradition from Türkiye," the Court of BiH said in its response, adding that a request containing the extradition documentation had been sent to Türkiye through the Ministry of Justice in the Council of Ministers.

The Ministry of Justice in the Council of Ministers told SRNA that it does not act on its own initiative in cases involving international legal assistance, including extradition, but exclusively at the request of the competent judicial authorities.

"Acting upon a request from the Prosecutor's Office of BiH, on January 27, 2023, the Ministry of Justice sent a request for Mahmuljin's extradition to the Turkish Ministry of Justice. We were informed that the whereabouts of the wanted person in Türkiye had not been established. We have not received a response to our follow-up inquiry regarding the possible whereabouts of the individual concerned in Türkiye," the Ministry of Justice said.

The Ministry said it would notify the competent judicial authorities in BiH if it received a new request from the BiH judicial authorities or a response from the competent Turkish authorities concerning Mahmuljin's whereabouts.

Sakib Mahmuljin fled after the Appeals Panel of the Court of BiH handed down its final judgment on April 22, 2022.