‘May Allah forgive your sins, have mercy on you and admit you to beautiful Paradise,’ wrote Mehmed Mahmić, now a delegate in the House of Peoples of the Parliament of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH), on Facebook in February 2022, alongside the obituary of his aunt.
Four months earlier, the Federal Pension and Disability Insurance Institute (FZ MIO/PIO) had sold her a 40-square-metre flat in Bosanska Krupa at auction. At the time, Mahmić was director of the Institute’s Cantonal Administrative Service for the Una-Sana Canton (USK). Instead of his aunt, Mahmić’s brother Asmir Mahmić turned up at the auction.
The sale and purchase agreement was signed by Mehmed Mahmić, acting as the Institute’s authorised representative, and his aunt. As there were no other bidders at the auction, the flat was sold for BAM 22,000, its starting price.
In addition to his aunt, Mahmić’s brother Asmir also bought a flat from the FZ MIO/PIO in central Bosanska Krupa in 2021, while friends Adis and Admir Hamzić bought three flats between them. They paid an average of BAM 512 per square metre, almost three times less than the average price of a flat in the town on the Una River at the time. The five flats cost them a total of BAM 104,000.
‘There weren’t many flats available, because not much was being built at the time, especially in Bosanska Krupa. Had the public known about them, they would have been snapped up,’ said Albin Ćoralić, director of Euro-plac, a Cazin-based estate agency, who gave CIN a general assessment of property values during that period.
All five flats bought by friends and relatives of Mahmić, who was the Institute’s director at the time, were quickly resold. According to the prices stated in the sale and purchase agreements, the buyers made an average profit of 25 per cent.
Mehmed Mahmić himself also bought a flat in central Bosanska Krupa from the Federal Pension and Disability Insurance Institute in 2013, when he was still an employee of the institution, paying BAM 587 per square metre. He declined to speak to journalists from the Centre for Investigative Reporting (CIN) about his property, saying that he had declared it to the USK Anti-Corruption Office. Neither his brother Asmir nor Adis and Admir Hamzić responded to calls or messages from CIN journalists.
Charity begins at home
When this politician from the Party of Democratic Action (SDA) was first elected to the Bosanska Krupa Municipal Council in 2008, he declared in the asset declaration submitted to Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Central Election Commission that he owned nothing more than a Golf III worth BAM 10,000.
But two decades spent drawing salaries from public institutions have brought his family two flats in the Krajina region, two villas and land in the Una River valley, two cars and three pieces of firearms.
He joined the Federal Pension and Disability Insurance Institute in 2010 as an officer responsible for administering pension and disability insurance rights in Bosanska Krupa.
Over the years, he rose through the ranks, and in 2018 he was first appointed acting director of the Institute’s Cantonal Administrative Service for the Una-Sana Canton, before later being appointed director.
Alongside his rise through the Institute’s ranks, Mahmić was also making headway in politics. In 2012, he was elected as a councillor for a second time, before winning three terms in the Una-Sana Canton Assembly, which also paved the way for him to become a delegate in the House of Peoples of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina Parliament.
In December 2012, he was given a flat owned by the Federal Pension and Disability Insurance Institute in Bosanska Krupa for his use. Less than four months later, he bought it for BAM 38,129. At the time, he was a senior officer responsible for administering pension and disability insurance rights.
Mahmić paid BAM 3,812.88 in each of ten annual instalments for the 65-square-metre flat. The sale and purchase agreement was signed with his fellow SDA member Samir Veladžić, then an Institute employee who had been authorised to sell the flat on the institution’s behalf.
Ćoralić, the estate agent, said that in 2013 property prices in the town were close to BAM 1,000 per square metre.
‘It would not be realistic for it to have been BAM 600 in 2013, because most of the flats were in the town centre and not much was being built at the time. Those flats were already worth more than that in 2013,’ Ćoralić explained.
In the asset declaration he submitted to the USK Anti-Corruption Office in 2026, Mahmić valued the flat at BAM 140,000.
Two luxury holiday homes – Villa Lux and Una Verde – have been built on land owned by Mehmed Mahmić’s family in Bosanska Otoka, on the banks of the Una River. Both are advertised on holiday-rental platforms. The holiday homes stand on a plot of roughly four dunums. A weekend stay for two people in one of them costs around BAM 750.
In 2026, Mahmić declared to the Anti-Corruption Office that his wife owned a house and land worth BAM 280,000. Villa Una Verde was built on land owned by Mahmić. Neither house is registered in the land registry.
Mahmić’s brother Asmir also owns half a dunum of land near the two villas.
Flats for family and friends
In mid-2021, the Federal Pension and Disability Insurance Institute advertised the sale of seven flats in central Bosanska Krupa through the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina Privatisation Agency. The flats were valued and sold for an average of BAM 512 per square metre.
Mahmić was director of the FZ MIO/PIO administrative service for the Una-Sana Canton at the time. Although he did not formally take part in the auction process, once the procedure was completed, he signed the sale and purchase agreements on behalf of the seller. Five of the seven flats were bought by his brother, his aunt and his friends.
After the sale was advertised, they generally turned up at the auctions as the only bidders.
The flats were valued by Muhamed Galijašević, a court-appointed construction expert from Velika Kladuša. To assess their value, he used comparable prices for four other flats in Bosanska Krupa.
The cheapest of the four was priced at BAM 818 per square metre, while the most expensive was BAM 1,483. The average price of the four comparable flats was BAM 1,128 per square metre. Galijašević also declined to speak to CIN.
All five flats bought by Mahmić’s friends and relatives were resold at a higher price between one and a half months and two and a half years after they were purchased.
The flat bought by his aunt was inherited by her son, Asmir Velić. He sold it five months after his mother’s death and, according to the sale and purchase agreement, made a profit of BAM 8,000.
Asmir Mahmić, then a postman and now an employee of the Una-Sana Canton Health Insurance Fund (ZZO), was the sole bidder at the auction for the flat he bought for himself. He paid BAM 23,500 for the flat and, according to the price stated in the sale and purchase agreement, later resold it for BAM 29,250.
Mehmed’s long-time friend and fellow party member, Adis Hamzić, bought a flat in much the same way. He also works for the Una-Sana Canton Health Insurance Fund, where he is head of the Bosanska Krupa branch.
This time, there was a second bidder at the auction, a businesswoman from Bosanska Krupa, but she soon withdrew from the purchase for personal reasons. The flat was bought for BAM 23,000 and resold a year later for BAM 27,000.
What Mehmed Mahmić and Adis Hamzić have in common, besides the flat transaction, is a BAM 25,000 loan. In the asset declaration Mahmić submitted to the USK Anti-Corruption Office in 2024, he stated that he owed Hamzić this money.
