The former director of the Velika Kladusa-headquartered Agrokomerc company, Fikret Abdic, who is serving his 15-year prison term in Croatia for war crimes in western Bosnia, has urged the authorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina to transfer to him management of that food-producing company as, his daughter said on Wednesday, he was able to revive production in that prewar agribusiness giant.
This unusual request has been sent to hundreds of addresses of various institutions in Bosnia which Abdic believes can decide on the fate of the remnants of that company.
In the late 1970s Agrokomerc, with Abdic at its helm, started to grow by cooperating with local farmers, building chicken farms and providing jobs for thousands of people in the region of Velika Kladusa and Cazin.
"I propose that I, as the creator and driving force of the Agrokomerc project, should be awarded Agrokomerc back so that we can restart production in that business giant," Abdic said in a written statement presented by his daughter Elvira Abdic-Jelenovic, a member of the Bosnian parliament, at a news conference in Sarajevo.
"Whether Fikret Abdic is free or in prison is irrelevant. What is relevant is the (Bosnian) state's position on the fate of Agrokomerc," Abdic-Jelenovic said while commenting on the fact that her father is still behind bars in the Croatian city of Pula.
She expressed hope that the Croatian authorities would grant the request of the Abdic family for an early release of Fikret Abdic, who has been behind bars since 2001.
