An ex-officio lawyer from Bihac was fined for not appearing at the hearing before the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), which he justified by the Chamber’s decision to go on strike, which is mandatory for all lawyers if they do not want to face disciplinary sanctions. While in institutions they consider strikes illegal, lawyers consider punishing colleagues inhumane.
On Monday, August 12th, defense attorney Edin Felic received a decision fining him a fine of 1,000 BAM after he failed to appear at the hearing two weeks ago for the plea of his client accused of war crimes committed in the area of Bosanska Krupa.
At that time, the judge for the preliminary hearing Saban Maksumic said that in mid-July, defense attorney Felic requested the postponement of the hearing due to the decision of the Bar Association of the Federation to suspend the work of defense attorneys ex officio, which the Court did not accept.
In an interview, lawyer Felic says that he informed the Court of BiH in a timely manner that he was unable to attend due to the strike, which is why he requested a postponement and submitted the Federal Chamber’s decision on going on strike.
“If I left, then I would certainly face disciplinary action for disobeying the Chamber’s decision, I don’t know what the punishment would be, but I would certainly be punished, which could eventually result in my expulsion from the Chamber. It is mine to respect the decision of the Federal Chamber, but here you see what the respect of such a decision entails”, explains Felic and adds that he informed the Bihac Regional Chamber and the Federation Bar Association about everything.
At the plea hearing, Judge Maksumic said that the reasons for the defense attorney’s non-appearance were not justified and that it would have been another matter if the defense attorney had come and cited suspension of work as a reason.
According to the Law on Criminal Procedure of BiH, the judge or the president of the Judicial Council can fine up to 5,000 a defense attorney who did not respond to the orderly summons of the court for the main trial and did not justify his absence.
Bekir Gavrankapetanovic, president of the Bar Association of the Federation, states that the Assembly made a decision to suspend work and that disobeying decisions is a more serious disciplinary offense for lawyers, Detektor writes.
E.Dz.
