SARAJEVO, Oct 11 (Hina) - The trial of a former Croat member ofBosnia-Herzegovina's presidency, Dragan Covic, four prominentbusinessmen, the Lijanovic brothers, the president of the BosnianConstitutional Court, Mato Tadic, and a law
school professor, ZdravkoLucic, began in Sarajevo on Tuesday before the State Court.
SARAJEVO, Oct 11 (Hina) - The trial of a former Croat member of
Bosnia-Herzegovina's presidency, Dragan Covic, four prominent businessmen, the
Lijanovic brothers, the president of the Bosnian Constitutional Court, Mato
Tadic, and a law school professor, Zdravko Lucic, began in Sarajevo on Tuesday
before the State Court. At the start of the trial, Prosecutor
Jonathan Rattel read out the indictment which alleges that the four Lijanovic
brothers gave bribes to Covic, who was then the finance minister of the
Croat-Muslim entity, to enable them to evade taxes and customs duties which
their meat-processing company was bound to pay.
According to him, Tadic also received bribes so as to ensure court
rulings in favour of the Lijanovics' company.
The accused and their defence teams criticised the indictment, saying
the charges were trumped-up.