More than half a year of investigative actions into the death of a Chinese worker near Stolac

The Prosecutor's Office of the Herzegovina-Neretva Canton (HNK) has been conducting investigative actions for more than half a year regarding the death of a Chinese worker in the town of Komanje Brdo near Stolac, but has not revealed what the criminal offense is, while the interlocutors of Detector warn of numerous irregularities at this construction site.

The HNK Prosecutor's Office told Detektor that checks are being conducted regarding the allegations about the incident, and that an order has been issued to authorized officials to undertake investigative actions in order to determine the status of the injured person at the time of the critical incident and other necessary information.
They say that a report from the competent labor inspection has been obtained, and information has been collected from the Service for Foreigners' Affairs regarding the entry and stay of the injured person in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
"So far, an on-site inspection has been carried out, an expert assessment of the technical condition of the vehicle, and an autopsy of the body of the deceased," the Prosecutor's Office stated in its response to Detektor.
However, the HNK Prosecutor's Office did not want to say what criminal offense is being investigated, except that they are conducting investigations into a case that was established several months ago.
Given that this is a case involving a foreign citizen, we contacted the State Prosecutor's Office, where they replied that they do not have a registered case.
A solar power plant is being built on Komanje Brdo in Stolac with a total investment of approximately 100 million KM, and is being installed by workers from China. One of the panels fell on Chinese worker Wang Xin Bo in June last year, who suffered injuries.
The detector was the first to discover that Wang Xin Bo did not have an approved “D” visa, which allows entry and stay in BiH for a period of 180 days within one year, and that he did not have a temporary residence permit in the country. His death exposed 71 Chinese citizens who did not have the necessary documents to work in BiH and had to leave the country. An inspection by inspectors from the Service for Foreigners’ Affairs resulted in a fine of nearly 40,000 KM for the companies responsible from Komanje Brdo.

Establishing all the circumstances
Attorney Ifet Feraget says that the public has the right to know what crime is being investigated, and if it is being conducted, that an order has been issued to that effect.
“The order should make it clear what crime is in question, or rather what legal characteristics of the crime are in question, and the very name of the crime,” Feraget said, adding that the circumstances that lead to the grounds for suspicion must be known.
In order to conduct a lawful investigation, it must, according to him, be in line with the circumstances, which in this case is the death of one person and 71 illegal workers on Komanje Brdo.
“The investigation is conducted to determine the true circumstances, not to waste time, because in the absence of the public, prosecutors have more room to maneuver to conduct the investigation ‘as is’,” Feraget said.
Emir Prcanović, executive director of the “Vaša prava BiH” association, recalls that foreign workers who were illegally residing in BiH were found at the construction site itself.
“The construction site where irregular foreigners, without valid residence permits, were present should have been closed until the competent inspection determined the circumstances of the work in accordance with the law,” said Prcanović, adding that the acting prosecutor, taking into account the victim, should have handed over the foreign workers to the Service for Foreigners’ Affairs in BiH for processing.
Former advisor to the Chief State Prosecutor and former head of organized crime investigations at the BiH Prosecutor’s Office, Ramiz Huremagić, says that it is impossible not to raise the issue of the overall legality of the engagement of Chinese workers at the construction site near Stolac.
“Such cases must always be treated with due consideration and all circumstances must be investigated in detail in order to eliminate any possibility of labor exploitation of foreign workers,” emphasizes Huremagić.

Inspection findings
The competent inspection of the Ministry of Health, Labor and Social Protection of the HNK refused to provide Detektor with the report of the inspection findings made on June 20 last year.

The Federal Administration for Inspection Affairs was provided with a notification of an accident at work, which Detektor had access to, stating that the accident occurred at the company “Ailin Tehnologija & Industrija” d.o.o. Mostar, which is a subcontractor at the construction site of the solar power plant on Komanje Brdo near Stolac.
The notification described that the cargo overturned and killed “a visitor to the company, a Chinese citizen Wang Xinbo, who was in the working area of the forklift”. The overturning, as stated, occurred when the cargo (solar panels) was being transferred by forklift from a truck to a temporary warehouse in the open air on an uneven ground surface.
The notification also states that “the cargo was not secured when being lifted and transferred by forklift”.
Ernis Imamović, Assistant to the Federal Minister of Labor and Social Policy, previously told Detektor that the load on such a work vehicle must be properly secured, and that only trained personnel can operate the forklift, but that occupational safety measures should be applied.
“One of the measures is that the load transported by this vehicle must be properly secured, and if this is not done, of course these regulations have been violated,” explained Imamović.
He added that before the very beginning, workers must be trained for safe work, and the equipment they operate and the space they occupy must have a use permit.
Huremagić says that it has been indisputably established that, at the construction site itself, the work machines and other vehicles used have national registration plates of the People's Republic of China.
“The only legal way for these vehicles to be present would be to have previously completed the procedure with the Indirect Taxation Administration for temporary import. In other words, these vehicles should have been registered at one of the border crossings and their customs clearance must have been carried out at the competent customs office,” said Huremagić.

If the procedures were avoided, explains Huremagić, we can speak of a violation of customs regulations, customs policy, value added tax, and accompanying by-laws, which again are all within the jurisdiction of the state of BiH.

The Indirect Taxation Administration of BiH did not respond to Detector’s inquiry as to whether any of the companies had registered the work machines that were carrying out the work on Komanje Brdo, and referred to the confidentiality of data on indirect taxes.