Doctor Boris Farkić from Loznica, Serbia, has filed a lawsuit against the State of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) and Sarajevo Canton authorities because a property in the Sarajevo neighborhood of Alifakovac belonging to his deceased mother Sara Šarika Farhi was illegally deeded to another person.
In a litigation before the Court of BiH, Farkić demanded a 340,000 KM in compensation for a house and land which the Basic Court in Sarajevo judge Lejla Fazlagić deeded to her late mother in 2013 following a fabricated court case. The Court’s judge Milena Rajić later deeded the property to Fazlagić’s painter and plumber Arif Ibrahimović following yet another fabricated proceeding. In 2016, Ibrahimović sold the property to a Sarajevo hospitality businessman Almir Hamamdžić for the sum of 180,000 KM. Hamamdžić built a hotel in the place of the Farhi house.
The authorities have declared abandoned the properties of this and numerous others Jewish families from Sarajevo, some of whom had perished during the Holocaust.
The Center for Investigative Reporting in Sarajevo (CIN) found that legal inheritors that survive deceased owners had not been informed about litigations through which they lost their titles. The story CIN published led some of them to sue for compensation or try to recover their properties through court action.
Farkić’s lawsuit cites various articles of the Republika Srpska Constitution and the Law on Courts in the Federation of BiH that stipulate a plaintiff’s right to compensation following a government official, state agency or an organization’s misconduct or illegal rulings. The rule of law dictates that a damaged party, i.e. a plaintiff, in this case may request compensation for having suffered damages due to misconduct or illegal rulings of a judge, according to the lawsuit.
Between 2011 and 2016, Fazlagić disinherited dozens of real property owners in Sarajevo by deeding their houses, condos, offices, and real estate to herself, her relatives and acquaintances. She mostly targeted the properties of Sarajevo Jews who perished during the Second World War as well as those of other dead Sarajevans. Then again, some of the property belonged to a few firms. According to a last year’s indictment, the Cantonal Prosecutor’s Office in Sarajevo found that Fazlagić illegally deeded 19 properties worth nearly 8 million KM.
Fazlagić has been on the run. She has been residing in Croatia since 2016. The Republic of Croatia Ministry of Justice has not yet responded to BiH’s extradition request.
