Lawyers engaged ex officio before the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina will suspend their work if the debts due to their representation in criminal cases are not settled. This was said for BHT1 by the President of the Bar Association of Republika Srpska, Dalibor Mrša, who notes that this measure was forced by the ignorant attitude of the competent institutions. Announcing more radical measures, the entity Associations in a joint statement indicate that the authorities are strengthening citizens’ mistrust in the judicial system by their actions.
We have reached the end. We can no longer tolerate ignoring debts owed to lawyers, says the President of the Bar Association of Republika Srpska. Lending representation with own funds, he adds, is no longer an option.
“I think that within a month we will have very clear positions, and these will certainly be very radical moves, radical decisions in the sense of suspending work on cases, criminal cases, where defense lawyers are engaged on official duties”, says the president of the RS Bar Association Dalibor Mrđa.
The Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina explains that there has been an increase in the costs of ex officio defense attorneys due to the larger number of cases before the Departments for War Crimes and Organized Crime. Two budget restructurings from last year were not enough for full payment, so the debts were transferred to this year, in which there is no budget.
“Given that the temporary financing of the institutions of BiH is in force, the funds provided by the operational plan of the Court for the period January-June 2024 were not sufficient to settle all obligations, and the Court addressed the Ministry of Finance and Treasury of BiH several times with a proposal for the Decision on approving the funds current reserves for the first and second quarters of 2024, and all competent and relevant institutions have been informed in order to get involved in solving the mentioned problem”, according to the Public Relations Department of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The suspension of the engagement of lawyers could cause serious consequences, from the slowdown to the complete suspension of legal proceedings before the state court.
“Some of the proceedings before the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina for the case of war crimes last as long as ten years, and now we received information the other day at one of the hearings in the cases where the lawyers requested that the hearings be held only once a month precisely because of the problem of non-payment of compensation”, explains Džana Brkanić from BIRN BiH.
BiH Minister of Justice Davor Bunoza previously told BIRN’s Detektor that there was no will in the Council of Ministers to pay debts from reserve funds. Politics has also blocked the adoption of the state budget, and thus could block the functioning of the judicial system.
