Alija Denjagić has been sentenced to 11 months in prison for misusing public funds while serving as a member of the Brčko District Assembly in connection with the allocation of grants. In addition to the prison sentence, he has been banned from holding the office of assembly member in Brčko for four years and ordered to repay BAM 9,063.
Also convicted in the case was Enida Osmanović Stevanović, president of the Brčko-based association United National Minorities (SNM), who received an eight-month prison sentence. She has likewise been barred for four years from serving as a responsible person in associations.
According to the Prosecutor’s Office, during his previous term in the Brčko District Assembly between 2018 and 2021, Denjagić secured budget grants for the United National Minorities Association through budget amendments.
Prosecutors stated that, with the consent of the association’s president, Osmanović Stevanović, the funds were misused for Denjagić’s personal benefit and for individuals close to him.
Once the Basic Court of the Brčko District of Bosnia and Herzegovina issues the written version of the judgment, both the prosecution and defence lawyers will be able to appeal the first-instance verdict. The sanctions imposed by the court will take effect only once the judgment becomes final.
The indictment was brought after CIN journalists revealed that Representative Denjagić had allocated over 620,000 BAM to various associations through budget amendments over two years, only to later demand that they return part of the money to him. The SNM, an association founded by his close friends and where his ex-wife also worked, thus received BAM 151,000.
CIN’s investigation into abuses in the allocation of grants in Brčko was published six years ago. It was discovered that MPs used grant money to buy votes in elections, and their friends from the association spent the money without any audit. Following the investigation, five indictments were filed, and three verdicts have been handed down.
The new convocation of the Brčko District Assembly officially began work in November 2024, but has yet to operate at full capacity. Denjagić entered the new term under a cloud of controversy, having spent the early days of his mandate in pre-trial detention over separate allegations of vote-buying in the 2024 local elections.
While winning a seat in the Brčko Assembly typically required around 1,400 votes, securing one of the two seats reserved for national minorities proved far easier. Elected as a representative of the Turkish national minority, Denjagić won his mandate with just 276 votes, securing his third consecutive term.
The Brčko District Prosecutor’s Office suspects that he organised a group to secure enough votes for an assembly seat by bribing voters. The Basic Court in Brčko ordered his detention, along with other members of the group.
Prosecutors allege that the group collected voters’ personal data and passed it on to Denjagić, who then provided them with money to pay selected voters. He then gave the group members money to pay off selected voters.
Denjagić was previously convicted in 2016 of certifying false information. He received a three-month prison sentence, suspended for two years. The conviction stemmed from his actions as the owner and director of the company “Poskok”, after he submitted a forged document to the Brčko District Government.
