Top Bosnia officials linked to ventilators scandal

The Court of Bosnia on Sunday ordered the release of two high ranking state officials and a businessman as they await trial on corruption charges over the import of 100 ventilators from China which proved to be useless.

The court refused prosecutors' demand to keep the three defendants in custody for 30 days until the trial begins.

Fadil Novalic, the Prime Minister of Bosnia's Muslim-Croat Federation; Fahrudin Solak, the Director of the Federal Civil Protection department; and Fikret Hodzic, the owner of the Silver Raspberry company which imported the ventilators, were detained on Friday.

They are being investigated for money laundering, fraud, embezzlement of state funds and other crimes, state prosecutors have said.

An investigation was opened in March after a public outcry over why the little-known Silver Raspberry fruit processing company received the five million euros (approx. 5.5 million US dollars) deal from the government to import the ventilators amid the coronavirus pandemic.

In their initial report, prosecutors said the imported ventilators "do not meet even a minimum of necessary characteristics for adequate treatment" of COVID-19 patients.

Hodzic has rejected accusations he imported the breathing machines at highly inflated prices.