President of the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council of Bosnia and Herzegovina Milan Tegeltija was questioned as a witness to the acting prosecutor of the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Although there are no details of what he was talking to a lawyer, it is known that Tegeltija was heared because of the eight minute video, filmed in November 2018, which was published by the Bosnian investigative news portal Zurnal, showing an officer named Marko Pandza from the State Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA) meeting in a cafe with businessman Nermin Alesevic and Milan Tegeltija.
In the video Pandza appears to act as an intermediary between Tegeltija and Alesevic, as they discuss Alesevic’s case, which has been slowly handled by the Canton Sarajevo’s Prosecutor’s Office.
Tegeltija, as the head of the HJPC, the body that appoints judges as well as prosecutors and disciplines them, asks Alesevic for the case number and the name of the prosecutor handling it but does not directly ask for any money or favors from the businessman.
Yet when the three exit the cafe the video shows an exchange between Pandza and Alesevic, in which Alesevic counts out the equivalent of US $1143.6 in Bosnian money and hands it to Pandza, who assures him he will give the money to Tegeltija.
“He will take care of it,” Pandza assures Alesevic.
Tegeltija again went into defense mode and claimed that the footage only proves his innocence.
“It can clearly be heard that I am saying ‘I can’t help you right now with anything’, and that I am telling Mr Alesevic to give me the documents, the case file number and the name of the prosecutor, which is common practice in the HJCP for complaints by parties who object the length of processes,” he told N1.
He also said he is not excluding the possibility that the police officer misused his friendship, OCCRP repo
