Tuzla Indictment Names Seven Over Nursing Home Fire
Ten months after the tragedy that killed several residents, prosecutors have named seven people responsible, including the home's former director.
The Tuzla Canton Cantonal Prosecutor’s Office filed an indictment on Friday, September 11, against seven people over the fire that broke out at a nursing home in Tuzla last autumn. For Serbia, the case is more than a Bosnian court story: the facility is the same type of institution run by domestic centers for social work, and elderly care systems across the Balkans closely resemble one another, so a ruling from the Tuzla court could set a benchmark for management accountability at similar homes across the region.
The fire broke out on November 4, 2025, in a resident’s room on the building’s seventh floor and spread quickly. The home housed around 180 elderly residents at the time, more than a hundred of whom were seriously ill, immobile or living with a disability. More than 30 people were injured. Sources differ on the final death toll: the Bosnian outlet Klix reports that autopsies confirmed 15 resident deaths, while the Croatian outlet tportal puts the number at 17, with ten dying shortly after the fire broke out and seven more later in hospital.
According to the prosecutor’s office, the indictment charges the home’s former director, Mirsad Bakalovic, 50, along with Zinaida Razic Halilovic, 47, who on the director’s orders effectively ran staff organization and scheduling, and Mustafa Azabagic, 67, who was responsible for fire protection and workplace safety at the institution. Also charged are Nedim Dzambic, 70, Mirsad Zukancic, 69, and Jasmin Softic, 37, from the Tuzla firm Inproz, which drew up the home’s fire risk assessment in 2021, as well as Ibrahim Sarajlic, 56, a fire protection inspector with the Cantonal Civil Protection Administration.
All seven are charged with grave criminal offenses against the general safety of people and property, with Bakalovic additionally facing a charge of abuse of position and authority. The prosecution states that between April 2021 and November 4, 2025, the defendants failed to take the prescribed protective measures, despite knowing the home was a category-one fire risk facility housing especially vulnerable residents.
“They are charged with committing, between April 2021 and November 4, 2025, the criminal offense of grave crimes against the general safety of people and property in connection with causing a general danger, with Bakalovic also charged with the continuing criminal offense of abuse of position and authority,” the Tuzla Canton Prosecutor’s Office said.
Under the indictment, these failures made constant oversight of immobile residents impossible and prevented the fire and carbon monoxide from being detected in time.
“As a result of these failures, the mandatory safety measures were not implemented at the facility, which meant that constant supervision of immobile and poorly mobile persons was never established, along with appropriate accommodation and placement of residents in line with their health condition and mobility, and no adequate fire prevention system or fire protection more broadly was ever put in place,” the prosecutor’s office said.
The prosecution also alleges that the 2021 fire risk assessment was never updated, and that reception staff did not act properly at the time of the fire. The indictment has been submitted to the Cantonal Court in Tuzla for confirmation and is backed by roughly a thousand pieces of material evidence, along with findings from expert witnesses in fire protection, workplace safety, construction and electrical engineering, and forensic medicine. Prosecutors have proposed that the court bar all seven defendants from holding public office or engaging in their respective professional activities for ten years.
The court in Tuzla has yet to rule on whether to confirm the indictment, and no date has been set for that hearing.
