Former Sarajevo Mayor Abdulah Skaka, who is currently Bosnia-Herzegovina's ambassador to Qatar, has been ordered held in pretrial detention for one month as he faces multiple criminal charges, the Sarajevo Municipal Court confirmed to RFE/RL on May 26.
Skaka was arrested on May 23 and charged with abuse of office, forgery, and related offenses.
The Sarajevo Prosecutor's Office requested that the court order Skaka to be taken into custody, as he posed a risk of flight, influencing witnesses, concealing evidence, or committing other criminal offenses if not held.
Prosecutors allege Skaka committed several crimes during his term as mayor between 2016 and 2020, including the illegal employment of four advisers and embezzlement of city funds.
Skaka, who has been a member of the ruling Bosniak Democratic Action Party (SDA) since its founding, is suspected of using bribes in an attempt to secure a second term for himself, prosecutors said.
He is also suspected of channeling grants to nongovernmental organizations that employed members of his family, falsifying financial statements to hide monetary donations, and using muncipal funds to install lighting in a locality where he has a vacation home, the prosecution said.
Skaka's arrest was preceded by searches of his house and numerous other locations in Sarajevo.
Denis Becirovic, the Bosnian Muslim member of the country's tripartite presidency, on May 23 initiated Skaka's dismissal from his ambassadorial post to Qatar.
Skaka is already being tried in a separate case in which he is suspected of using corruption to get elected as mayor. Other SDA officials are also suspects in that case.
Over the past month, two other high-ranking officials were arrested in Sarajevo -- Senaid Memic, Bosnia's ambassador to Malaysia, and Ibrahim Hadzibajric, the mayor of the the capital's Stari Grad neighborhood -- on suspicion of corruption.