The Court of BiH’s Panel of Judges presided by Goran Radević meted out a minimum sentence for this criminal offence. The law stipulates that a sentence for this crime can be up to 20 years in prison.
The final judgment summary reads that extenuating circumstances where the fact that Oruqi pleaded guilty and revealed the name of the person that signed him up for drug smuggling. He does not have a criminal history either. He was a mule for a certain Leonardo from Peć, Kosovo. Oruqi said today that he’s ready to continue cooperating with a prosecutor.
BiH Prosecutor’s Office announced that it would appeal the verdict, while Oruqi’s attorney Mirza Kovač said he wouldn’t.
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Prosecutor Oleg Čavka said before the hearing that Oruqi had not cooperated to the extent that the defense is trying to portray.
According to Čavka, Oruqi did claim that his car was outfitted with a secrete compartment to transport gold, even though the drugs were found there. The prosecutor said that it has never been proven that the defendant owned a gold shop and that Oruqi is formally the owner of the “Model Agency” firm.
Čavka said that Oruqi smuggled more than six kilograms of crude heroin that, mixed with other substances, produces 36 kilograms of drugs for sale on the street.
“This is sufficient for 400,000 to 500,000 drug addicts. One gram on the street is worth between 10 and 15 KM, which means that the street value of the drug was between four and five million KM,” said Čavka.
Attorney Kovač called the prosecutor’s statements tendentious, malevolent and contradictory, and added that Oruqi’s family in Kosovo is at risk because of his client’s testimony.
At the earlier hearings, Kovač said that Oruqi’s family will be forced to emigrate from Kosovo because of the threats. Kovač said that Oruqi’s uncle was killed in a bombing attack in Peć after his client pleaded guilty.
The court ordered seizure of all Oruqi’s property that was used in the course of committing the crime, including a car.
Officers of the State Investigation and Protection Agency arrested Oruqi in a Sarajevo suburb of Ilidža on Feb 2. The police found drugs in his car that he had picked up in Montenegro, according to the indictment.
The defendant told the Prosecutor’s Office that he smuggled the drugs into BiH through a border crossing near Višegrad. He proceeded to Sarajevo where he was to deliver the drugs to an unknown person and receive €5,000. He was arrested before the drug changed hands.
