Bosnia Ministers' Party Claims Arrests Were 'Political'

Members of the People's Party Work for Progress in Bosnia have criticised the detention earlier this week of their party's two leaders, saying they suspect political influences were at work.

Party president Mladen Ivankovic-Lijanovic - who was released from detention on Thursday - said he did not know why was he arrested on Wednesday along with his brother, on suspicion of fraud and tax evasion, and questioned the way it was done.

"This will not stop us from running our campaign," Ivankovic-Lijanovic said, referring to the party's election campaign, which starts on September 12, a month before the general election in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Other party members said they were also not clear about the reasons of the arrests.
"If it's about some business that has dragged on for 10 to 15 years, why did the responsible institutions wait exactly for this moment?" one party member, Ivan Matkovic, said.

Bosnia's Prosecutor and the State Investigative and Protection Agency, SIPA, on Wednesday arrested Mladen Ivankovic-Lijanovic, his brother Jerko - who is Federation entity Agriculture Minister - Milorad Bahilj, the Trade Minister, and nine others.

Of the 11 arrested, seven have been kept in detention and the prosecutor has asked that they remain there for a month.

Jerko Ivankovic-Lijanovic is vice-president of his brother's party, which is part of the ruling coalition in Bosnia's Federation entity.

The party holds the ministerial positions earmarked for Croats in the mainly Bosniak and Croat entity. In its party programme, it calls for a simplified governing structure in the entity and for the abolition of the entity's ten cantons.

Lijanovici is one of the largest meat companies in Bosnia and...