In November 2023, the Municipal Court in Bihać handed down convictions to six individuals and the private clinic “Medica” for issuing 2,437 medical certificates to driving school candidates from the Una-Sana Canton without conducting any examinations. They admitted guilt and were found guilty of association for the commission of a crime.
Sead Seferagić, the founder of Medica, received a 10-month prison sentence. Co-founders Mirzada Seferagić and Suada Šehić were each given an 8-month suspended prison sentence, which will only be enforced if they commit another offense within two years.
Employees of this private health institution, Azra Sarić, Alma Dedić (formerly Galić), and Ermina Cerić, were each sentenced to 6 months in prison. However, these sentences will not be enforced unless they re-offend within the next 12 months.
Medica had earnings from issuing fraudulent certificates amounting to 121,580 BAM confiscated, and they will additionally be liable to pay a fine of 50,000 BAM if they commit another offense by the end of 2027.
The Center for Investigative Reporting wrote about Medica’s issuing false medical certificates in 2021.
“Never again will you go to Medica and not be examined there. Your story culminated in a convicting verdict,” said Adnan Tulić, deputy chief prosecutor of the USK.
Among the 54 accused, along with the owners and staff of Medica, were doctors Enver Budimlić, Andrej Ižaković, Evresa Okanović, and Muhidin Šertović, who served on the commission responsible for issuing certificates. The indictment also implicated occupational medicine specialist and the then-director of Medica, Vjekoslava Pehadžić, along with 43 driving instructors.
As per the indictment, driving instructors and representatives from 34 driving schools would bring the ID cards and 50 BAM for each candidate to Medica. The employees of this healthcare institution would then enter the names of the candidates on pre-signed and pre-sealed blank certificates. The prosecution determined that the members of the medical commission, including Ižaković, Pehadžić, Budimlić, and Okanović, were not even in Bosnia and Herzegovina during the purported medical examinations of 427 candidates and the issuance of their medical certificates.
Doctor Andrej Ižaković was the first to admit guilt through a plea agreement, and the Municipal Court in Bihać sentenced him in December 2021 to a one-year prison term, which remained unexecuted as he refrained from re-offending within the next two years. He was found guilty of association for the commission of a crime and issuing and using false medical or veterinary certificates. Additionally, he received a two-year prohibition from participating in commissions of private healthcare institutions in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Following plea agreements, the majority of accused driving instructors were subsequently handed suspended sentences. As outlined by prosecutor Tulić, other accused doctors have been consolidated into a separate case, awaiting the commencement of the trial.
