The Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina handed down the first-instance verdict in Jerko Ivankovic-Lijanovic et al case on Monday, sentencing the defendants to a total of 52 years in prison, with Ivankovic-Lijanovic commenting in a press release that the ruling was motivated by politics.
Him and his co-defendants were charged with counts of organised crime, money laundering, and tax evasion. Ivankovic-Lijanovic was sentenced to 12 years in prison and fined 50,000 Bosnian marks (€25,000).
Ivankovic-Lijanovic had formerly served as agriculture minister of Bosnia’s Federation (FBiH) entity, and ran as presidency candidate in Bosnia’s October 7 general election. In the first statement following the verdict, he said the verdict amounted to a “political decision” and that he would continue fighting the ruling.
“I am very sorry that the Bosnia and Herzegovina Court’s Chamber succumbed to political influence and tried to render a verdict for something I didn’t do. This is obviously a continuation of political pressure for me to give up on political engagement,” he said.
“The path to justice and truth is long and hard, but I believe it is achievable, and that such verdicts based on political influence will be annulled at higher court instances,” Ivankovic-Lijnovic said, adding that he would continue fighting the verdict.
The indictment, issued in 2015 against 16 co-defendants including several members of the Lijanovic family who own the large Lijanovici meat processing company, charged them with acting as a criminal group in the period from 2007 to 2012.
The group would establish shell companies with the legally mandated minimum capital of up to 2,000 marks (€1,000), and then proceed to transfer raw materials, products, and property to those new companies, to avoid paying piled up tax debts accumulated by their alrteady owned companies.
According to the indictment, the operation earned a profit of some 13.5 million (€6.8 million) to the group, while also causing damages to the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s budget in the same amount.
Ivankovic-Lijanovic did not attend the verdict pronouncement, and sent in his comments via a statement sent to the media.
(€1 = 1.95 Bosnian marks)
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