Bosnian MP held for war crimes, released

A member of the Parliament of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) who was arrested earlier Friday over suspected war crimes committed during 1990s, was released later in the day, Xinhua reported.

Semsudin Mehmedovic, a parliamentarian since 2006, is a senior member of the Democratic Action Party (SDA). He said his arrest was "a pure revenge".

The 52-year-old was suspected of abusing ethnic Serbs during 1992 and 1993 when he acted as police chief in Tesanj, a small town 150 km from Sarajevo, said the State Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA).

The SIPA,which had transferred Mehmedovic to an assigned prosecutor before he was released, however, refused to comment on the decision to release him.

The arrest by SIPA confirmed "no one is untouchable" inside BiH in the pursuit of war crime suspects. Probe into the case began in 2012 while three other suspects were being investigated, an SIPA spokesperson said earlier.

Under the constitution, BiH consists of two entities, the Federation of BiH and Republika Srpska. The two entities are linked by state parliament but they have their own legislative, executive and judicial bodies.