SARAJEVO (Reuters) – Bosnia’s Security Minister Nenad Nesic was arrested on Thursday along with six others on charges of organised crime including money laundering, abuse of office and acceptance of bribes, the state prosecutor’s office said in a statement.
The state prosecutor and the Interior Ministry of Bosnia’s Serb Republic (RS) have been investigating suspected corruption at the public company Roads of RS, where Nesic was the general manager from 2016-2020.
The company’s current general manager Milan Dakic was also arrested, as well as Mladen Lucic, the brother of a former minister.
Nobody from the company was immediately available to comment. Nesic, Dakic and Lucic could not be reached for comment.
The prosecution did not name the other four who were arrested.
RS President Milorad Dodik, who is himself on trial in Bosnia’s state court for defying the decisions of international peace envoy Christian Schmidt, accused the prosecutor’s office of a persecution campaign against Serb government officials.
“The procedure launched by Bosnia’s prosecutor’s office against Security Minister Nenad Nesic is totally unacceptable,” Dodik said on his X profile.
(Reporting by Daria Sito-Sucic; Editing by Alexandra Hudson)
