Justice before the courts in Bosnia and Herzegovina seems unattainable. There are cases where individual cases are delayed for up to 15 years. The duration of court proceedings has not been determined, except for the term “reasonable period”. How long does “reasonable” last before the courts in Bosnia and Herzegovina?
The indictment was confirmed in 2017. The trial has not even started today. The start is usually delayed due to non-arrival. It is a case against former Minister of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina Alija Delimustafić and others. The latest attempt to start the hearing failed on Tuesday, December 5.
“The trial must be postponed again, with a warning that in the future, non-appearances must be announced earlier, and not on the day of the scheduled hearing,” said Igor Todorović, chairman of the Judicial Council in the Cantonal Court in Sarajevo.
That is one of the reasons. The defense has numerous other possibilities, which it uses in practice. Thus, the defense of Milorad Dodik has already used the request to postpone the hearing twice, once because of the trip to Hungary, the second time because of the appeal about the rejection of the request to transfer the case to the court in Banja Luka.
“I reject that this is in the direction of procrastination. We won’t get anything in a week or two. Nothing will be solved. However, the right to a fair trial and an independent court is the foundation of every legal system of the state and every democracy,” said Dodik’s lawyer Anto Nobilo.
We are far from such a model, according to experienced lawyers. Procedures take too long, people get exhausted.
“In that direction, my experience is too great. I will just tell you that one proceeding at the Cantonal Court in Sarajevo in the Railway case has been going on, it seems to me, for 12 years. Those people grew old through this proceeding, some even died,” the lawyer points out. Josip Muselimović.
Protracted court processes, low-quality indictments, frequent changes of the Judicial Council, low penalties. These are factors that lead to an ineffective judiciary in Bosnia and Herzegovina, warns Damjan Ožegović from Transparency International BiH.
“This is because our procedural laws are, first of all, bad. Second, because, unfortunately, judges and prosecutors and the entire judiciary do not even comply with those laws. We have numerous examples where precisely because of non-compliance with the law, there were numerous exemptions, dismissal of judges , prosecutors and the like,” emphasizes Ožegović.
The duration of the “reasonable period” is not defined. Failure to resolve court proceedings within a “reasonable time” is a direct violation of the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina, so relatively frequent appeals to that court are due to unreasonable deadlines. The resolution of court proceedings in practice, according to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, should take place according to the 4+3+2 formula, which means: four years of first-instance proceedings, three years of second-instance proceedings, and if an appeal were to be sent to the Constitutional Court – two-year deadline for decision.
