SARAJEVO -- Bosnia-Herzegovina’s security minister has been arrested on charges of money-laundering, abuse of office, and accepting bribes, the Balkan nation’s prosecutor’s office said.
The minister, Nenad Nesic, was among seven people arrested on similar charges, the office said on December 26.
The charges stem from an investigation by the Bosnian state prosecutor and the Interior Ministry of Bosnia's ethnic-Serb entity, Republika Srpska, into suspected corruption at the Roads of RS (Putevi RS) public company, where Nesic was general manager from 2016 to 2020.
The company's current general manager, Milan Dakic, was also among those arrested, prosecutors said. The company did not immediately comment.
Nesic, 46, has been Bosnia’s security minister since 2022.
SEE ALSO: U.S., EU Slam Bosnian Serb Efforts To Block Bosnia-Herzegovina's EU IntegrationWhen asked by reporters about the case as he was entering an East Sarajevo police station, Nesic said only that "I continue to fight for Republika Srpska," according to Reuters.
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).
Dodik, who is president of Republika Srpska, claimed on social media that this was an "unacceptable procedure" and a "persecution of cadres" from the Bosnian government.
The pro-Russia Dodik is under sanctions imposed by the United States and Britain for his efforts to undermine the Dayton agreements that ended the 1992-95 Bosnian war.
He is currently facing trial himself on charges he failed to comply with the decisions of international High Representative Christian Schmidt.
Ethnic Serb lawmakers this week said Dodik's trial was political and based on illegal decisions by the high representative. They claimed that the court was unconstitutional because it was set up by Schmidt and not by the Dayton agreement.
Since the Dayton peace accords were put into effect, the country has consisted of a Bosniak-Croat federation and the mostly ethnic Serb Republika Srpska under a weak central government, where Nesic holds the security portfolio.