Chief Prosecutor Goran Salihović discussed yesterday with an EU Delegation team to BiH about international support in the form of the IPA-2 Project, activities in increasing the BiH Prosecution capacity, and the possible donor assistance in the implementation of necessary activities.
The EU Delegation team consisted of Holger Šreder, Severin Štohal and Una Keli, announced the BiH Prosecution Office.
At the meeting they spoke about the EU IPA Project that is being implemented with the help of BiH institutions, particularly in the procesution of war crimes, as well as IPA 2 Projects, that will be realized from 2014-2020.
In the framework of IPA-2 is a plan to support judicial institutions with an emphasis on the fight against corruption.
The reason for the meeting was the continuation of previous discussions on operative aspects to help the Prosecution Office of BiH through projects of the EU Delegation to BiH.
It was pointed out that some of the priorities of activities in the future would be the provision of capacity, increasing the number of prosecutors for intensive work and engagement in the process of finding and identifying the missing.
At the meeting they spoke about the possibilities of international donors in the process of strengthening institutions of the BiH Prosecution in human and material capacities for more efficient work on cases and strengthening the rule of law in BiH, and in the light of BiH’s moving closer to the EU.
The Chief Prosecutor said that estimates suggest that the current number of cases in the BiH Prosecutor’s Office, according to international standards, the work of these institutions requires 240 prosecutors for cases of war crimes to be finalized.
“We are aware that we cannot have that many prosecutors, but an increase by 20 prosecutors would greatly speed up the processing of cases’’, said Salihović.
The meeting highlighted the need for mutual coordination of the Prosecution and BiH Court in these activities, because the increase of capacity and work in one institution is tied with an increase with the number of cases in both institutions.
It was pointed out that in the rulebook of the BiH Prosecution, which was adopted at the session of the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Office of BiH on 19 April, provided an increase in the capacity of investigators and research assistants in the office so that the work on criminal investigations in war crimes cases would be accelerated.
The Amendment Ordinance of the BiH Prosecution is in accordance with the recommendations of the structural dialogue on judicial reform between the BiH and the EU.
The BiH Prosecution stated that the planned increase in capacity, and moving into a new building in which the Prosecution will function independently, would greatly contribute to more efficient work in war crimes cases and organized crimes.
