Lawyer Galijatović: The court will have the final say in the Gavrankapetanović case

SARAJEVO, (Patria) - Today's extraordinary session of the University of Sarajevo's Management Board, which was supposed to decide on the return of Professor Ismet Gavrankapetanović to teaching at the Faculty of Medicine in Sarajevo, was not held due to a lack of quorum. Only four out of 11 members attended the session.

Professor Gavrankapetanović's lawyer, Maida Galijatović, stated that no decision was made regarding Prof. Gavrankapetanović's appeal against the termination of his employment contract.

She claims that the employment of a full professor is a permanent relationship under both the old and the new laws on higher education.

- A higher education institution was obliged to offer a permanent contract to a full professor - says Galijatović.

Galijatović stated that at the beginning of this year, they approached the Rector of the University of Sarajevo, Rifat Škrijelj, with a request to resolve the employment status of Professor Gavrankapetanović, who had not yet received the termination decision, which was made on January 5, 2018, but only delivered to him in April 2018.

- We approached the Rector during that period. The Rector is also authorized to protect the legality of the University's operations and has the authority to directly annul decisions of deans of higher education institutions if they are found to be illegal. The illegality of this decision was established in the findings of the inspection for higher education, which determined that the termination decision was contrary to all positive legal regulations. However, the inspection did not deem it necessary to provide instructions for the Faculty of Medicine's actions, given how the contract was concluded. The inspection's findings state that the decision is illegal, but that the court makes the final decision.

She confirmed that they have filed a lawsuit with the court against the termination decision, given that the Management Board, as the second-instance body, has never ruled on the appeal.

- Through this lawsuit, we hope for a comprehensive resolution of the legal status of Prof. Gavrankapetanović. We also hope that the members of the Management Board will act according to their conscience and the law and bring the University within the framework of legal operations - says Galijatović.

Rector Škrijelj stated that he does not wish to comment on the criminal complaint filed against him.

- I have not jeopardized the status of colleague Gavrankapetanović with any of my signatures or any of my actions. I express my regret that he is not teaching at the Faculty of Medicine, but it is not up to me as the Rector. It is directly the responsibility of the Scientific-Teaching Council of that Faculty, the Dean, and the bodies and authorities of the Faculty tasked by law and statute to ensure legal teaching operations. Whether they have violated the rights of colleague Gavrankapetanović will be shown by the ongoing court case.