BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA: A suspect in a German jewellery heist who was being held in a Bosnian prison sauntered to freedom after his jailers forget to lock his cell, officials said on Tuesday (May 12th).

"Branko Simic left his cell through unlocked doors and walked out from the detention unit totally unseen," a spokeswoman for the justice ministry told AFP.

The guard responsible for the incident that occurred in the early morning hours of Monday was immediately suspended and an investigation was launched, Bakic added.

Simic, a Serbian national, was arrested earlier this month on the border with Serbia upon an Interpol arrest warrant.

The 22-year-old is sought by Germany under suspicion for taking in the jewellery robbery, a court official said without providing further details on the crime.

Simic had been held in the detention facility of the Sarajevo-based Court of Bosnia-Hercegovina ahead of his extradition to Germany.

It is the second incident within a month that has embarrassed Bosnia's court police.

In April, a human trafficking suspect knocked out an aunt of one of his victims in front of the court building where they were waiting for a sentence against him to be delivered, but the court guards did not react.

The incident, recorded by national television, sparked wide public criticism of the work of the special court police. (AFP)