The Minister of Security of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Nenad Nešić, has been arrested on charges of money-laundering, abuse of office, and accepting bribes, the Balkan nation’s prosecutor’s office said.
The Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina confirmed to the media that Nešić is currently in their custody.
The allegations are the result of an investigation into potential corruption at the Roads of RS (Putevi RS) public corporation, where Nesic served as general manager from 2016 to 2020, by the Bosnian state prosecutor and the Interior Ministry of Bosnia’s ethnic-Serb entity, Republika Srpska.
Nesic, 46, has been Bosnia’s security minister since 2022.
Nesic is president of the Democratic People’s Alliance (DNS), which is in a coalition with Milorad Dodik’s Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD).
RS President, Milorad Dodik is himself on trial in Bosnia’s state court for defying decisions of Christian Schmidt, the international peace envoy who oversees implementation of the Dayton treaty that ended Bosnia’s 1990s war.
This week, ethnic Serb parliamentarians claimed that Dodik’s trial was politically motivated and based on unconstitutional decisions made by the high representative.
Since the Dayton peace accords were implemented, the country has been divided between a Bosniak-Croat federation and the predominantly ethnic Serb Republika Srpska, both governed by a weak central government, with Nesic in charge of security.
