AGRICULTURAL COOPERATIVE IN BANKRUPTCY FOR 21 YEARS: Criminal Charges Filed Against the Government of Brčko District BiH

The Agricultural Cooperative "Ratar" Brka, which has been in bankruptcy for 21 years, was registered as the property of the Brčko District of BiH, holding full ownership (1/1). In this process, the Agricultural Cooperative "Brka" Brčko, recognised as a creditor of "Ratar" Brka, lost its property rights, prompting them to file criminal complaints, as confirmed by the Cooperative to Žurnal.

Criminal complaints have been filed against the Government of the Brčko District of BiH, the Department for the Public Registry, and the officials involved in this procedure.

FAILURE TO COMPLY WITH THE 1997 COURT RULING 

The complaint, which Žurnal has reviewed, states that on 21 April of this year, the accused, acting as official persons, other responsible entities, and legal entities, issued a transcript of the possession record dated 21 April 2016 at the premises of the Department for the Public Registry of the Brčko District. They altered the ownership data or usage rights, registering the Agricultural Cooperative "Ratar" Brka as the user of property belonging to the Brčko District.

In this way, according to the complaint, the final decision of the Higher Court in Tuzla from 1997 was violated, as well as purchase agreements from 1959 and 1990. 

Žurnal is in possession of the 1997 ruling by the Higher Court in Tuzla, which states that on 24 December 1996, the Agricultural Cooperative "Ratar" Brka filed a lawsuit against the Agricultural Cooperative "Bosanka" Brčko. The latter had been part of its structure until 1990, after which it separated. The lawsuit sought to establish ownership and possession rights over properties including Sješa, which consisted of arable land of categories III and IV; Gađenovača, which included a house and building, as well as forests of categories IV and V and arable land of category II; Plac, consisting of a yard and an economic building; Zadružno dvorište, which comprised an economic building and yard, as well as an orchard of category IV; Alićkuša, which included arable land of category III; and Polje, which consisted of a local road, arable land of category II, and a house and building. 

The Higher Court in Tuzla ruled in 1997, without scheduling a hearing but based on an admission, that the Agricultural Cooperative "Ratar" was the possessor of the disputed properties and land. 

"The defendant, the Agricultural Cooperative 'Bosanka' Brčko, is obligated to tolerate and allow the plaintiff to be registered as the possessor of the specified properties in the Brčko land registry within 15 days of the ruling becoming final, under the threat of enforcement," states the decision of the Higher Court in Tuzla. The explanation further notes that in a written submission dated 27 February 1997, the defendant fully admitted the plaintiff's claims and proposed that the court issue a ruling without scheduling a hearing and approve the plaintiff's claims.

This ruling was confirmed on 12 May 1997. 

The criminal complaint states, among other things, that the Agricultural Cooperative "Brka" Brčko, as a recognised creditor of "Ratar", lost its property rights and the recognised right to claim due to all the aforementioned illegal actions. The complaint also refers to the bankruptcy proceedings that were opened in 2006 and are still ongoing. 

"Unilateral cancellation of the claimant's acquired rights occurred in 2009, through a ruling by the Basic Court of the Brčko District dated 29 October 2009, for which they were not informed, nor had they been notified of such changes, although they were required to be notified according to legal regulations. In the mentioned ruling, the Land Registry issued an illegal decision and carried out the registration of ownership rights in favour of the Brčko District, without including the essential, mandatory elements that would allow the legal basis, legal norm, and law for the change to be determined, other than stating that it occurred ex officio," the criminal complaint states. 

Due to this action, the Agricultural Cooperative "Brka" has lost agricultural production incentives exceeding 50,000 KM for the period since it began leasing the land, which started in 2003.

DISPUTED RULING OF THE CANTONAL COURT IN TUZLA 

The legal representative of the Agricultural Cooperative "Brka", Šaćir Rahman, reminds Žurnal that the liquidation of "Ratar" Brka began on 19 September 2003, based on a ruling that was later inserted into the court registry in Tuzla, while the amendments were made at the registry court in Brčko. The disputed ruling of the Cantonal Court in Tuzla, which initiated the liquidation process ex officio, is dated 8 May 2001. However, it was not among the documents transferred from Tuzla when the Registry Court was established in Brčko. It only appeared later in the Brčko court files, and it was first discovered when it was used by the prosecutor in the criminal case against the management of "Ratar" Cooperative, which was initiated because the liquidation was started ex officio. 

Žurnal has in its possession two responses from the Municipal Court in Tuzla, dated 2009 and 2015, stating that they "do not have any record of a ruling on the cessation or deletion of the mentioned entity."

The ruling of the Cantonal Court in Tuzla from 8 May 2001 is, in fact, the only obstacle preventing the creditors from being satisfied.

"This ruling established the dissolution of the cooperative. In this way, the liquidation process begins. Later, we realised that this process was carried out in order to seize the property of the Cooperative by the institutions of the Brčko District. The Cooperative 'Ratar' owns 50 hectares of land, which it purchased with a mortgage and which, according to a ruling by the Higher Court in Tuzla, is in the possession of 'Ratar'. Instead of implementing the ruling as written in 2001, the Brčko District institutions, rather than following the decision, invented different terms and registered the Agricultural Cooperative as a user of social property, not the possessor," says Rahman.

Žurnal is also in possession of a ruling that allows the registration of 'Ratar' Cooperative's property as social property in favour of the Brčko District of BiH. In this way, the property records of 'Ratar' Cooperative were changed ex officio.

Šaćir Rahman says that, in this way, the Agricultural Cooperative "Ratar" was brought to a position where its property was being discussed as something that belongs to the Brčko District. 

"Later, the term was changed to 'user of the property of the Brčko District'. They have nothing to do with the purchase of this land, we have the purchase agreements," Rahman emphasises. 

Žurnal is also in possession of several purchase agreements from 1967, which show that, at that time, the Cooperative Enterprise "Ratar" Brka was the buyer of these specific properties. It is important to note that the Agricultural Cooperative, based in Brka, was founded on 11 January 1946, and has undergone a series of status changes over the years, as confirmed by a document from the Historical Archive of Sarajevo, number: 05-2605-1/08, dated 17 October 2008. All changes have been recorded in the Official Gazette.

Other sources speaking to Žurnal say that behind all of this lies the issue of property, and that the aim of the entire long-running procedure is to ensure that no one is granted active standing over the Cooperative's property so that no one would have the right to challenge how the land came into the ownership of the Brčko District of BiH.

Some members of the Creditors’ Committee previously told Žurnal that the Council for Registration had altered the entries in the land register, but had not invited the interested party beforehand, which is contrary to the law. According to their claims, other agricultural cooperatives have found themselves in similar situations, but in those cases, the Council for Registration acted differently, allowing those cooperatives to transfer the records from the land registry to the Land Book and register the ownership.

The Creditors’ Committee also previously stated that, in addition to everything mentioned, even the legal succession of the Cooperative was falsified, which is why they also filed criminal charges.

In order to prove the legal succession, they submitted a number of documents to the protocol of the Registry Court of the Brčko District of BiH. However, according to them, the acting judge ignored them at that time.

WAITING FOR THE PROSECUTORIAL DECISION

The criminal report from the Agricultural Cooperative "Brka" was sent to the Office for the Prevention of Corruption and Coordination of Anti-Corruption Activities in the Brčko District of BiH. They told Žurnal that it had been processed in accordance with their legal authority, and on 23 August this year, it was forwarded to the Prosecutor's Office of the Brčko District of BiH for further action.

The Prosecutor's Office of the Brčko District of BiH confirmed to Žurnal that the received report states that the legal representative of Agricultural Cooperative "Brka", co-owner of Agricultural Cooperative "Ratar", and Chairman of the Creditors' Committee, Šaćir Rahman, is participating in a legal proceeding against the Brčko District of BiH. The report demands the determination of responsibility of the Public Registry Department of the Brčko District Government, in which, according to the report, entries were made in the land registry contrary to the decision from 3 September 1997.

"In other words, the report claims that this was done with the intention of unlawfully appropriating the cooperative’s property by the Brčko District of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In this criminal case, the Prosecutor's Office is taking investigative measures and actions within its jurisdiction to make a final prosecutorial decision," stated the Prosecutor's Office of the Brčko District of BiH to Žurnal.

WHAT THE OFFICE FOR PUBLIC PROPERTY MANAGEMENT SAYS

In response to Žurnal’s inquiry, the Office for Public Property Management of the Brčko District of BiH reminded that over 10 years ago, the Basic Court of the Brčko District of BiH issued rulings against the agricultural cooperative in determining ownership rights over the disputed property.

"There have been more than 20 such rulings, confirmed by the Appellate Court of the Brčko District, and a number of these rulings were upheld by the Constitutional Court of BiH. Despite the rulings establishing the non-existence of ownership rights of the Agricultural Cooperative 'Ratar' over the specific property, a portion of the Brčko District property is still being used by the said Cooperative, and legal proceedings are ongoing before the Basic Court of the Brčko District for the handover of the District’s property," said the Office. In these proceedings, the Brčko District is represented by the Legal Office of the Brčko District.

One of Žurnal’s questions was whether they have evidence that money from the Brčko District of BiH was invested in the purchase of the disputed land, but no response was received to this inquiry.

(zurnal.info)