MEHMEDAGIĆ ACQUITTED OF CHARGES

SARAJEVO, OCTOBER 20 /SRNA/ - The Court of BiH today acquitted Osman Mehmedagić of charges of abuse of office for performing his duties without the required higher education qualifications.

The Court of BiH said in a statement that the acquittal had been handed down because, as it put it, "the actions described in the indictment do not contain all the statutory elements of the criminal offence charged against the defendant".

The statement noted that the Court had "established that the indictment did not specify the acts constituting the offence, namely, it did not state which official duty the defendant had failed to perform, which authority he had abused or exceeded, or how such conduct had resulted in a benefit, caused damage or seriously violated another person's rights".

The ruling is at first instance.

The indictment accused Mehmedagić of abusing his official position between November 2019 and February 27, 2023, when he was dismissed as Director General of the Intelligence and Security Agency /OBA/ of BiH, in order to remain in office and thereby maintain his official position and social influence. It alleged that he had obtained financial gain in the form of a salary totalling BAM 293,046, causing equivalent damage to the BiH budget and committing the criminal offence of abuse of office or authority.