The trial of Bakir's Prime Minister Fadil Novalić and others in the "Ventilators" affair continued today in the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

In addition to Novalić, the accused are also the suspended director of the Federal Civil Protection Administration, Fahrudin Solak, and Fikret Hodžić, the owner of the company "Srebrena malina", and the Minister of Finance of FB&H, Jelka Milićević.

Mediation role

Adnan Garčević, an employee of Privredna banka Sarajevo, who was in communication with Fikret Hodžić regarding the "Srebrena malina " account, where the funds paid by the Federal Civil Protection Administration for ventilators were deposited, gave his statement.

Prosecutor Mirza Hukeljić questioned this witness on the circumstances that four days before the contract with the FCPA was signed, Hodžić knew that he would get a job to purchase ventilators, ie before the FB&H government approved money for the purchase of medical equipment.

- I communicated with Hodžić by phone, in person, by e-mail and Viber. When I was home, on March 30th, Hodžić sent me a message on Viber that he expects a larger inflow of money into the account. As well as expecting payment from those funds. He asked for my help. I didn’t answer him, and after three or four days we heard from each other. I was at home for those seven days, because of the pandemic - stated Garčević.

He claimed that it was only when he arrived at work that he saw that Hodžić submitted the documentation covering the payment.

- Hodžić asked me for banking services, ie to fill in the form for a foreign transaction. I told him he needed a contract, a preface, and an invoice. That was after the payment - stated Garčević.

During the interrogation of Garčević, it could be heard in the courtroom that the real buyer of the ventilators was the Montenegrin company BTL and that bank guarantees were written because of it, which were never activated. It was about the mediating role of the Montenegrin company.

They asked for a permit for medical equipment

The second witness was Redžep Hodžić, Fikret Hodžić's brother who is an employee of "Srebrena malina".

He was questioned about the circumstances of sending an invoice on Fikret Hodžić's order to a certain Edmund Chu in China.

Redžep, who is employed as a salesman, claimed to have heard of the ventilators only a few days before their delivery.

He stated that he did not participate in the procurement of ventilators. He says that he sent the invoice to the Chinese because Fikret was forbidden access to the official premises.

Hodžić's cousin Emina Mehmedović also testified,because of sending a request to the Agency for Medicines and Medical Equipment for a license to import medical equipment. She did that, as she says, on the order of director Hodžić.