Bosnian former PM banned from office

By Alix Kroeger in Sarajevo

The former Prime Minister of Bosnia's Muslim-Croat Federation has been banned for life from holding public office after a corruption enquiry.

Edhem Bicakcic was also removed from his post at Bosnia's state-owned electricity company by the international community's top mediator in Bosnia, High Representative Wolfgang Petritsch.

Documents shown to the BBC and passed to the Office of the High Representative (OHR) suggest that Mr Bicakcic has diverted at least $13m of public funds.

Action: Petritisch has imposed a life ban on Bicakcic

"There's a clear pattern of abuse of office as prime minister of as the Federation of Bosnia Hercegovina and therefore once it was exposed I had to act," Mr Petritsch told the BBC.

Mr Bicakcic is also under investigation by Bosnia's financial police.

The OHR, which has wide-ranging powers under the Dayton peace accord, took the decision to ban Mr Bicakcic for life, saying he had damaged good governance, the rule of law, and budgetry security.

The documents suggest that Mr Bicakcic used his position to funnel money to his political party, the Muslim nationalist SDA.

The papers indicate that he created an employment agency in 1999, which paid out $12m in loans to a war veterans' charity with links to the SDA.

Vienna link

OHR also has letters signed and sealed by Mr Bicakcic, in which he apparently ordered the transfer of $1.25m from the Bosnian embassy in Vienna, into an account in Sarajevo.

Other papers appear to show that in a separate case, Mr Bicakcic authorised the transfer of $400,000 from government reserves to a charity for the families of Muslim war veterans.

Although the funds at the centre of the affair came from the Bosnian treasury, not from international aid, alleged corruption on this scale is unlikely to encourage foreign investment, which Bosnia badly needs.