The head of the Party for Better Goražde, Esed Radeljaš, has lost another of the several offices that he held in the past years after he had been sentenced for fraud and forgery of documents.
The assembly of Bosnia-Podrinje Canton (BPK) impeached him from the post of the Cantonal minister of industry following a motion jointly submitted by four legislators from four parties. Radeljaš was appointed BPK’s minister of industry in January 2015.
Previously, he served as a legislator with the Sarajevo Canton Assembly and Novi Grad Council on behalf of BOSS. He was also a legislator with the FBiH Parliament’s House of Peoples and the president of the Board of Directors of the Sarajevo Canton Health Insurance Bureau. The Supreme Court of the FBiH sentenced Radeljaš to a year in prison in 2005, but this did not hinder his political career.
As the Center for Investigative Reporting in Sarajevo has already reported, Radeljaš never went to jail because his name was misspelled as Esad in the judgement making it unenforceable. By the time the typo was corrected, the execution’s deadline for enforcement had expired.
Likewise, Radeljaš defrauded businessman Meho Mušić from he borrowed money. Radeljaš signed the promissory note as Esad. He never paid Mušić back and when the later sued him, Radeljaš said before the Municipal Court in Sarajevo that he had never taken the money.
As CIN has already written, Radeljaš made money by selling other people’s property as his own or selling twice the same property to different buyers. He has also built a house without obtaining the required licenses; he evaded taxes and damaged the budget of Novi Grad Borough where he was a councilman.
Alma Delizaimović, the president of the Party for Democratic Action’s caucus in BPK Assembly who led the impeachment initiative, said she read all what CIN published regarding Radeljaš and this had an effect on her opinion about him.
The impeachment motion was first sent to BPK Prime Minister Emir Oković. He said that Radeljaš’s impeachment, even though it was a political decision, was influenced by a number of factors, including offences that CIN has brought to light.
“I read (the bit) about the names Esad – Esed, so we were watchful when the order was signed,” said Oković.
