The Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is conducting the investigation in the “Respirators” case, also questioned the director of the Agency for Medicines and Medical Devices of BiH, Aleksandar Zolak. Zolak himself confirmed this, saying that he testified in the Prosecutor’s Office of BiH as a witness.
The public is now asking why Zolak does not have the status of a suspect in the case, if it is known that the agency he leads has issued a permit to Fikret Hodzic’s company “Srebrena Malina” for the import of medical equipment, Vijesti.ba news portal reports.
The suspicion that is charged in the whole story with the Prime Minister of FBiH Fadil Novalic is that he allegedly demanded from the director Zolak to issue a license to the company “Srebrena Malina” for the import of medical equipment.
However, as Vijesti.ba has learned, these claims are not true, nor is it true that Novalic talked to Zolak or anyone else from the mentioned agency on this or any other topic.
It is true that at the time of the pandemic there was communication between members of the Office of the Prime Minister and officials from the Agency.
But, as Vijesti.ba finds out, it was not only about the permit for “Silver Raspberry” that was discussed, but also about some other companies.
One of them is “Violeta”, which needed a permit to import medical equipment as part of a donation to hospitals in BiH. Sources close to Vijesti.ba news portal say that the Agency has just informed the members of the Office of the Prime Minister of FBiH about the procedures that need to be fulfilled in order for these companies to obtain an import permit.
From this it can be concluded that the Office of the Prime Minister of FBiH neither had a decisive influence on the issuance of licenses, nor does the Government have jurisdiction over this agency, which is at the state level.