PM of Bosnian entity ends up in custody: Spends night at police because of "ventilator affair"

Photo: Tanjug/Irfan Licina

Prime Minister of the Federation of BiH Fadil Novalic, the suspended director of FUCZ, Fahrudin Solak, and the owner of the company Srebrena Maline, Fikret Hodic, spent the night in the premises of the State Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA) in East Sarajevo becuase of what's known as the ventilator affair.

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All three were questioned on Thursday in connection with the events within the said affair, i.e. the process of buying 100 suspicious ventilators from China for the price of 10.5 million convertible marks.

According to the Sarajevo portal Klix, the fact that medical devices were being procured by an agricultural company, that it is not clear who and why decided to procure a specific model, how the procurement was done, how permits were issued and how the money of FBiH citizens was used, is all problematic.

The Prosecutor's Office of BiH should state during the day whether any of them will be treated as suspects in the mentioned case.

Also, by order of the Prosecutor's Office of BiH, SIPA searched and confiscated documents from several locations, including the headquarters of the Federal Civil Protection Administration in Sarajevo, the Public Health Institute of the Federation of BiH in Sarajevo and Mostar and the headquarters of Srebrena Malina in Vogosca.

In the meantime, the accounts of the company Srebrena Malina have been blocked, while the Government of FBiH suspended Solak from the position of the director of the Federal Civil Protection Administration on May 12, but, as it is stated, he continued to receive his salary.

(Telegraf.rs/Tanjug)