WITHIN OPERATION CODENAMED “CAMEROON” INDICTMENT ISSUED FOR ORGANISING GROUP OR ASSOCIATION FOR COMMITTING CRIMINAL OFFENCES OF SMUGGLING OF MIGRANTS

The Prosecutor’s Office of BiH and partner police and security agencies discovered and documented the smuggling of migrants from Africa to EU countries, in the commission of which the perpetrators used ID documents and travel documents of the Republic of France and the Republic of Italy, which belonged to third persons.

A prosecutor of the Special Department for Organised Crime, Economic Crime and Corruption of the Prosecutor’s Office of BiH has filed an indictment against:

-          Jackson Ndip, born in 1968 in Cameroon, residing in the Republic of France, in custody;

-          Agbor Donatus Eta, born in 1979 in Cameroon, citizen of Cameroon, in custody.

The accused are charged with recruiting Cameroonian citizens in 2019 and early 2020, together with several persons known to them, in the territory of Cameroon, France and Bosnia and Herzegovina, acting as an organised group, in order to acquire unlawful property gain and promising those citizens that they would make it possible for them to go to EU countries for amounts ranging between 4500 and 7500 euros.

The indictment alleges that the accused obtained visas for the smuggled migrants at the BiH diplomatic representation office in Egypt, under the guise of intending to visit BiH for religious tourism, and upon their arrival to BiH they arranged the accommodation for the illegal migrants in the territory of Konjic and attempted to organise their departure from BiH by land and air, giving them travel documents of the Republic of France and the Republic of Italy, which were issued in the names of other persons.

To this end, most illegal migrants were detected and prevented from attempting to leave BiH in late January this year.

The accused are charged with having committed the following criminal offences: Organizing a group or association for the commission of the criminal offence of smuggling of migrants under Article 189a, in conjunction with the criminal offence of Smuggling of persons under Article 189 of the Criminal Code of BiH.

The indictment was forwarded to the Court of BiH.