Bomb threats are becoming more frequent. Along with schools, courts are most often targeted. Since the beginning of the year, the Sarajevo Municipal Court alone has received six such reports, which is why 720 hearings have been postponed.
The Sarajevo Municipal Court is “flooded” with bomb reports. In this year alone, six of them were reported, and in the previous year, 14. Mathematically, that means that they are employees of this Court, if we take into account that the KDZ examination lasted four hours on average, lost seven working days last year. In the Court they note that it creates additional costs, and citizens are deprived of their rights.
“Imagine a citizen who comes from Bihać to Sarajevo in front of the court building and is then told that the hearing has been postponed due to a false report about a mine-explosive device. I believe that these are problems that the competent institutions should deal with in order to solve them, because this trend it continued this year as well. You should keep in mind the fact that in addition to the hearings, we also have two registers, one of which is the register for legal entities as well as the land registry office,” said Damir Batotić, president of the Sarajevo Municipal Court.
Experts stress that tougher sanctions would help considerably. In addition to the material damage, the non-material damage is huge.
“Each appearance in court is a certain type of stress for a professional. How to calculate it? How judges and prosecutors qualify these acts. It depends on different factors and sanctions from different circumstances. However, such sanctions must be a deterrent because it involves huge damages,” explains Arben Murtezić, director of the Center for the Education of Judges and Prosecutors of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
“Also, consider doing a good analysis of these cases so far. Is there around 720, so let’s see if we can recognize anything in common in those cases that could indicate motives, that is, if there are common motives,” said Armin Kržalić, professor at the Faculty of Criminology, Criminology and Security Studies at UNSA.
Statistics show that the number of reports about the mine-explosive devices in institutions and schools is increasing. Especially since the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine. Apart from the courts, the largest number of reports refers to schools.
Last year, 10 people were identified
“In January and February of this year, we had five reports. Last year, 10 people were identified. It is about requiring additional engagement of police officers. Especially when we have a case of multiple reports at the same time. As we had the other day. We inspected 65 school buildings,” recalled Mersiha Novalić, spokesperson for the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Sarajevo Canton.
The Ministry of Interior of Sarajevo Canton reminds that last year 237 reports of bombs were reported in the facility. Our interlocutors say that they are in favor of these criminal acts the most commonly imposed sentences are up to one year in prison, which can be converted into monetary fines.
