New allegations of child abuse have emerged at a care facility for children with mental and other disabilities in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Media outlets have published a video showing a woman beating a teenager at the Pazaric Institute for the Care of Mentally Disabled Children and Youth, located approximately 30 kilometers from the capital, Sarajevo.
Adnan Delic, the minister for social affairs in Bosnia, has called for the management of the institution to secure the employee's resignation and report her to the local prosecutor-general's office.
Delic also requested that prosecutors investigate the person who filmed the abuse and provided the footage to journalists without reporting it to either the prosecutor-general's office or management.
The minister called on Aida Hadzimusic, the journalist from Al-Jazeera Balkans who published the piece, "to make herself available for questioning by the prosecution."
She responded that this could discourage "future whistle-blowers," but Delic said that in his opinion it would have been "normal" if the person who filmed the incident had "prevented the employee from hitting the teenager, rather than filming it."
Samir Suljagic, the director of the institute, said he had received "several reports of harassment" and forwarded all of them to the prosecutor-general's office. One of the reports has been dismissed.
He also mentioned that he had made several decisions to prevent such incidents, and that "several disciplinary procedures" were in progress. He had not decided to fire any employees but noted that he now has a direct request from the ministry "to act in accordance with the law and dismiss the employee."
This is not the first case in which footage of mistreatment of residents of the Pazaric Institute has been released to the public.
The Institute gained attention in 2019 when pictures depicting children tied to a radiator were published.
Following that, the Bosnian government, under pressure from public protests in Sarajevo, dismissed the director and the management and supervisory board of the institute.
The prosecutor-general's office of Sarajevo filed an indictment in May 2021 against three individuals who held the position of director at the institute during different periods.
The municipal court in Sarajevo last month sentenced Jasmin Cerimagic, Senad Muharemovc, and Redzep Salic, all former directors, to four years and six months in prison each for the criminal offense of negligent service.