Notary Dževad Omanović from Cazin has been acquitted of charges in the first-instance criminal proceedings conducted before the Municipal Court in Cazin. The court determined that the criminal proceedings is time-barred, and thus dismissed the indictment brought by the Prosecutor’s Office of the Una-Sana Canton (USK) against Omanović, and partially against Asim Kapić. At the same time, Asim Kapić has been acquitted of charges for assisting in forgery of an official document.
This verdict can be appealed before the Cantonal Court in Bihać.
The indictment had charged notary Omanović with abuse of office or authority and forgery of an official document, and Kapić with aiding and abetting the commission of the crime.
According to the indictment, in summer 2008 Omanović lent Mirsad Adilagić from Cazin 15,000 EUR with an interest of 7,500 EUR to be repaid by the end of the year. After Adilagić did not return the money within the deadline, Omanović used his position as a notary and created documents with untrue content to return his money. His schoolmate Asim Kapić helped him with this.
The contested documents say that Adilagić borrowed 22,500 EUR from Kapić, and that the debt can be settled against BAM 700,000 worth of real estate belonging to Adilagić’s brother Muhamed.
Based on these documents, Asim Kapić initiated the enforcement procedure for the sale of Adilagić’s real estate before the Municipal Court in Cazin in 2011 in order to collect the debt. The enforcement procedure has been stopped until the completion of the criminal procedure, which has been initiated in the meantime.
In the course of the investigation, no original documents were found with either Kapić or Omanović, and the forensic investigation showed that the signatures in the notary’s records did not belong to Adilagić.
During this process, the Ministry of Justice of the Una-Sana Canton initiated proceedings to temporarily remove Omanović from notary service, given that the regulations stipulate the possibility of suspending a notary subject to criminal proceedings. The purpose of this legal possibility is to protect the reputation and honor of the notary service or safeguard the interests of the parties.
The first-instance disciplinary commission of the Chamber of Notaries of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH) approved the request, and in February 2023 rendered the Decision suspending Omanović from service. The decision remained in force until the middle of July when it was revoked by the decision of the second-instance disciplinary commission of the FBiH Chamber of Notaries.
This means that Omanović can continue to serve as a notary until he reaches 70, i.e., by 2025, unless otherwise determined by the second-instance court in the criminal proceedings.
