Having completed a trial, on 6 March 2024 the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina delivered and pronounced a Judgment in the case of Amanullah Ishakil et al., finding the accused Amanulah Ishakil and Qais Khan guilty that, by the acts described in the operative part of the Judgment, they committed the offenses as follows:

• the accused Qais Khan, through the acts described under Section 1 of the operative part of the Judgment, the criminal offense of Smuggling of People under Article 189(4) as read with Paragraph 1 of the Criminal Code of BiH (CC BiH), in conjunction with Article 26 of the CC BiH, and through the acts described under Section 2 of the operative part of the Judgment, the criminal offense of International Human Trafficking under Article 186(2) as read with Paragraph 1 CC BiH, in conjunction with Articles 29 and 53 of the CC BiH;
• the accused Amanullah Ishakil, through the acts described under Section 2 of the operative part of the Judgment, the criminal offense of International Human Trafficking under Article 186(2) as read with Paragraph 1 CC BiH, in conjunction with Article 29 of the CC BiH.

The Court imposed on the accused Qais Khan the following prison sentences:

• for the criminal offense of Smuggling of People under Article 189(4) CC BiH as read with Paragraph 1, all in conjunction with Article 26 CC BiH, a sentence of 2 (two) years of imprisonment;
• for the criminal offense of International Human Trafficking under Article 186(2) as read with Paragraph 1 CC BiH, all in conjunction with Article 29 CC BiH, a sentence of 10 (ten) years of imprisonment.

Pursuant to Article 53(2)b) CC BiH, the Court imposed on the accused Qais Khan a compound sentence of 11 (eleven) years of imprisonment. The time the accused spent in pre-trial custody, from 24 July 2023 onwards, shall be credited towards his sentence of imprisonment.

The Court sentenced the accused Amanullah Ishakil to 10 (ten) years of imprisonment. The time the accused spent in pre-trial custody, from 24 July 2023 onwards, shall be credited towards his sentence of imprisonment.

Conversely, pursuant to Article 284 c) of the BiH Criminal Procedure Code, the accused Amanullah Ishakil and Qais Khan are acquitted of the charges that by the acts described in the operative part of the Judgment they committed the criminal offense of Smuggling of People under Article 189(1) CC BiH, as read with Article 29 CC BiH.

In addition, the Court issued a decision extending custody of the accused Amanullah Ishakil and Qais Khan, which was ordered and extended under the Court’s previous decisions, all due to the existing circumstances provided for in Article 138 of the Criminal Procedure Code of BiH. Pursuant to the new decision, custody may last no longer than 9 (nine) months, that is, until 6 December 2024 or a new Court’s decision.

The accused Qais Khan is, inter alia, found guilty because, on 24 February 2022, in order to obtain unlawful property gain, he tried to unlawfully transfer a group of four migrants across the BiH state border towards Croatia and further towards the EU countries, in as much as he had organized their admittance in a private house owned by B.H. in the village of Draganovci bb, Orašje municipality, in the immediate vicinity of the Orašje border crossing, and followed suitable trucks waiting to cross the border in order to secretly load migrants onto them and thus unlawfully transfer them across the border, while the migrants would readily wait for trucks opened by the accused Qais Khan to start off.

In addition, the accused Amanullah Ishakil and Qais Khan are found guilty, because they in concert, during December 2021, in a house owned by B.H. in the place of Draganovci bb, Orašje municipality, in the immediate vicinity of the Orašje border crossing, by using force and threat by force, cold weapon and a pistol, having abused the fact that migrants were minors and helpless, by deceiving and pretending that they would unlawfully transfer them across the border and further to the EU countries, they procured a minor migrant for sexual abuse, thereupon repeatedly sexually abused him, restricted his movement by physically beating and threatening him in the late evening hours on the premises of that facility, whereupon they would rape and sexually abuse him for several days, while recording all that by telephone and threatening him that they would kill him and that if he escaped that they would share the recordings with others, having thereby established control over him all for the purpose of further sexual and ill-treatment of this minor.

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