Jasenko Tufekčić, a delegate of the House of Peoples of the Parliament of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH), asked the Municipal Court in Sarajevo to commute his eight-month prison sentence to a fine. The request was approved and he will have to pay BAM 24,000. The decision was made in May 2022 but the money has not yet been paid.
In a short statement for CIN Tufekčić said that he did not know that the request had been approved because he had just submitted it. He also said that he did not calculate the amount he would have to pay to remain free.
“It’s Eid and I wouldn’t want to spoil it talking about those things now”, he said briefly to CIN.
Tufekčić was convicted last November for fraud in the service and falsification of documents. He was charged after CIN discovered that he was abusing transportation allowance and per diems thus misappropriating more than BAM 35.000. He admitted his guilt and returned the money.
Five years ago, CIN journalists reported on Tufekčić who had been collecting travel allowance and per diem for his trips to Sarajevo based on false information he provided in his travel orders. Sarajevo Canton Prosecutor’s Office used this report as a piece of evidence in the indictment against the FBiH delegate.
According to the indictment, Tufekčić submitted 355 official travel orders from July 2011 to April 2017 in which he entered false information. He reported having used his private car during these travels, while he owned neither a car nor a driving license.
“Although the accused was entitled to use the business vehicle of the House of Peoples, he declined it because in this case, he would not have the possibility to claim the travel costs”, said the Prosecutor.
CIN revealed that over two years, he had been stating in the travel orders the number plates of two vehicles, of which at least one has not matched the plates of the vehicle he used. He used the official car of the Party of Democratic Action from Livno.
Journalists also discovered that in 2015 and 2016 Tufekčić’s schedule called for 89 days of work on duties, but he submitted nearly twice as many travel orders. Mostly, he would not spell out the reasons for coming to Sarajevo, but would say that he came “in the course of regular business”.
Jasenko Tufekčić has previously been convicted. In late 2020, he was sentenced to a three-month suspended prison sentence for unlawfully hiring a party colleague six years earlier, when he was Vice-Speaker of the Canton 10 Assembly.
