Attorney Fikreta Hodžić: There is no longer a final verdict on the basis of which he can be held in prison!

(Patria) - Fikret Hodžić should be released, because the Constitutional Court of BiH ordered a new trial, following an appeal filed by his defense team led by attorney Mirna Avdibegović.

- Regarding today's decision of the Constitutional Court, all I can say is to interpret the content of the notification that arrived. Like you, I see that it states that a violation was established in the appeals of the natural and legal person, which relates to the fact that the Court of BiH did not remove any doubt that the accused knew the legal qualification of the act for which they were convicted.

I cannot comment further on the decision, as I do not have it at my disposal. Only when I receive the written judgment can I see what is written. What I see is that the proceedings are returned to the Court of BiH to remedy the established violations - says Avdibegović.

She specifies that at this moment this means there is no final verdict on the basis of which a natural person can be held in prison to serve a sentence.

- We expect an early decision from the Court of BiH that will respect the decision of the Constitutional Court of BiH. I can remind that this very violation was immediately highlighted when we heard the content of the first-instance verdict, because I said then that my client was convicted for something that was never even charged against him in the legal qualification. We will see how things develop further - emphasizes Avdibegović.

We remind that in this case, the Constitutional Court accepted the appeal of Fikret Hodžić and the legal entity "F.H. Srebrena malina" d.o.o. and established a violation of the right to a fair trial of these appellants in the part of the contested judgment of the Court of BiH which decided on their objection that they did not know what they were charged with.

The Constitutional Court considers that the submitted judgments did not remove the doubt that the appellants were first confronted with the legal qualification of the act for which they were convicted in the first-instance judgment, and that therefore they could not prepare their defense.

"Therefore, the Constitutional Court decided to return the case in that part to the Court of BiH, which will remedy the established violation of the rights of these appellants," the Court states.

Regarding Fadil Novalić and Fahrudin Solak, it was established that the right to a fair trial was violated in the "Respirators" case.