Journalist detained for reporting on criminal activities of the security sector

Radio Television of Republika Srpska (RTRS) journalist Nataša Miljanović-Zubac was detained tonight on the orders of prosecutor Sanita Imamović, who had previously ordered a search of the journalist's parents' family home, allegedly for the criminal offense of revealing an official secret.

According to unofficial information from Vijesti, the journalist will not be questioned until tomorrow morning at the Prosecutor's Office in Sarajevo.

She was previously under restricted movement measures after she was approached today in front of her family home in Trebinje by members of the BiH Border Police from that city.

Nataša Miljanović-Zubac told Vijesti at the time that police officers told her that she would most likely be detained, but they did not explain why. She suspects that the reason is retaliation for her work, because she has consistently pointed to crime within institutions, especially in the local police, for years.

She emphasized that in the previous days she had also published information about retired OSE officer Dragan Jelić, and pointed out that those she had spoken and written about publicly - including Nemanja Nogoštić and other police officers - were most likely behind everything.

She pointed out that she constantly wrote letters to the institutions and asked them to call her for an interview, so that she could provide them with the information she had obtained, but that they, in order to protect themselves, were choosing repression.

"The day before yesterday I published something about the deputy chief of the Trebinje Police Department, Petar Kozjak, then Jelić, a retired member of the OBA, who was returned to service. I continuously publish details about the Ministry of Interior, the Prosecutor's Office, the Border Police, all security institutions, or rather, about the criminals among them. I published information about the director of the Border Police, Mirko Kupresaković, Vladimir Popović from Internal Control, the head of the Central Investigation Office...", she said.

It is Article 164 of the Criminal Code of Bosnia and Herzegovina, to which the prosecutor refers in the order, in paragraph 9, that excludes the existence of a criminal offense in certain circumstances.

This paragraph clearly stipulates:

"There is no criminal offence of disclosing classified information if someone publishes or mediates in the publication of classified information the content of which is contrary to the constitutional order of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with the aim of revealing to the public irregularities related to the organisation, operation or management of the service or with the aim of revealing to the public facts which constitute a violation of the constitutional order or an international treaty, if the publication does not have serious harmful consequences for Bosnia and Herzegovina."

In April last year, Vijesti published an article about journalist Miljanović Zubac, who was already under serious threats and pressure due to her investigative work.

It was then pointed out that her home country had left her without institutional protection, even though she had repeatedly contacted the authorities. Instead of specific protection measures, the police recommended that she learn self-defense. The prosecution, on the other hand, ignored her public warnings about the connection between criminal structures and the security sector in Republika Srpska, but also in the wider region.