Biographies of seven candidates for President of the Court of BiH: HJPC to choose between five judges and two prosecutors

Who the new President of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina will be will be known on Wednesday, December 14, at the session of the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council (HJPC) of BiH to be held in Mostar.

Judges of BiH Branko Perić, Izo Tankić, Ranko Debevac, Mira Smajlović, and Tihomir Lukes applied for the position of President of the Court of BiH. Additionally, prosecutor of the BiH Prosecutor's Office Ismet Šuškić and Chief Prosecutor of the Sarajevo Canton Prosecutor's Office Dalida Burzić applied. Interviews with the candidates are being held today, and Patria presents the biographies of the applicants.

Branko Perić

Branko Perić was born in 1954 in Čečava near Teslić. He graduated from the Faculty of Law in Belgrade. He passed the bar exam in 1979. After his traineeship at the District Court in Doboj, starting in 1979, he served as a judge, president of the court, prosecutor, and lawyer in Bosanski Brod. He was appointed prosecutor in 1992 in Teslić. From 1996, he held the position of editor in several news agencies, was the first president of the independent Association of Journalists of Republika Srpska, and became vice-president of the Council of the Communications Regulatory Agency of BiH. Since 2003, he has been a judge at the Court of BiH, and from 2004 to 2010, he was the president of the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council of BiH.

Izo Tankić

Izo Tankić was born in Koraj in 1956. He graduated from the Faculty of Law in Sarajevo and passed the bar exam in 1981. In 1982, he was appointed municipal public prosecutor in Tuzla, and in 1987, a judge of the Higher Court, where he served for nine years. For the next three years, he practiced law independently, and from 1999, he served as a cantonal prosecutor in Tuzla. By decision of the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council in 2003, he was appointed Chief Prosecutor of the Cantonal Prosecutor's Office in Tuzla. He participated in the work of numerous expert groups and was the president of the Commission for the Appointment of Prosecutors in Tuzla Canton. From 2002 to 2005, he was a member of the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council. He was appointed judge of the Court of BiH on March 1, 2005.

Ranko Debevac

Ranko Debevac was born in 1964 in Sarajevo, where he graduated from the Faculty of Law at the University of Sarajevo in 1988. He completed his traineeship at the Basic Court II in Sarajevo and at the Law Office of attorney Žarko Bulić, and after passing the bar exam in 1990, he worked as a legal associate at that court. From 1995 to 2000, he worked as a translator and advisor with the UNPROFOR and NATO missions, and from 2000 to 2005, he worked as a legal advisor in the Commission for Property Claims of Displaced Persons and Refugees (CRPC), at Hypo Alpe-Adria Bank in Sarajevo, and at the Public Attorney's Office of Centar Municipality. From 2005 to 2008, he served as a prosecutor at the Cantonal Prosecutor's Office in Sarajevo. He was appointed prosecutor of the BiH Prosecutor's Office on April 10, 2008, and from 2010 to 2012, he was a member of the Project Team of the Council of Europe's IPA project for combating cybercrime. He was appointed judge of the Court of BiH on December 12, 2012.

Mira Smajlović

Mira Smajlović was born in Konjic in 1952. She graduated from the Faculty of Law at the University of Sarajevo in 1976. After graduating, she performed legal representation duties and managerial roles in UNIS companies "Igman" and "Energetika" in Konjic. She was appointed judge of the Municipal Court in Konjic in 1994, and from September 1, 2003, she served as president of that court. She was appointed judge of the Court of BiH on January 18, 2007.

Tihomir Lukes

Tihomir Lukes was born on February 12, 1952, in Zavidovići, BiH. After primary school and completing high school in Maglaj, he enrolled in the Faculty of Law in Sarajevo, where he graduated in 1976. After completing his judicial traineeship and passing the bar exam, from 1977, he continued to work as a judge and later president of the Municipal Court in Maglaj until 1986. From 1990 to 1992, he worked as a judge of the Higher Court in Doboj. After that, in 1992, he moved to Sweden and returned in 2002 to Maglaj, where he worked as a judge of the Municipal Court until February 2004, and then as a judge of the District Court in Doboj. He was appointed judge of the Court of BiH on December 13, 2007.

Ismet Šuškić

Ismet Šuškić was born in 1954 in Šipovo, BiH. He graduated from the Faculty of Law at the University of Sarajevo in 1979, and passed the bar exam in 1993. He completed postgraduate studies at the same faculty in the department of state and international public law in 1989, and is currently working on his master's thesis. He gained work experience at ZOIL "Sarajevo" PJ "Prijedor" in legal representation before courts, at ŽTO "Sarajevo" - OPŽ "Zenica" as head of the legal, personnel, and general affairs department, and at the Executive Council of SR BiH - Republican Institute for Public Administration, as an expert associate in the most complex normative-legal, study-analytical, and expert-operational tasks.

He has been working in the prosecutor's organization since 1995 as a deputy municipal prosecutor II Sarajevo, and as a cantonal prosecutor Sarajevo, until February 15, 2005, when he was appointed prosecutor of the BiH Prosecutor's Office and assigned to the Special Department for Organized Crime, Economic Crime, and Corruption.

Dalida Burzić

Dalida Burzić was born on November 27, 1963, in Sarajevo. She graduated from the Faculty of Law at the University of Sarajevo in 1987. From 1988 to 1990, she worked as a trainee at the Basic Court II in Sarajevo. She passed the bar exam in 1990. She worked as a legal associate at the Basic Court II in Sarajevo until 1994, when she was elected judge of the Basic Court II Sarajevo.

She also worked as a legal associate at the Cantonal Court in Sarajevo from 2001, after which, in 2003, she was appointed cantonal prosecutor of the Cantonal Prosecutor's Office in Sarajevo. From 2007, she was a judge of the Cantonal Court in Sarajevo, and from 2012, president of the Criminal Division of that court.

By decision of the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council, she was appointed Chief Prosecutor of the Cantonal Prosecutor's Office in Sarajevo at the end of 2014. She was a member of the expert working group at the HJPC that prepared questions in the criminal law field for candidates being appointed to judicial positions for the first time. In December 2015, she received the award for fighting corruption from the US Embassy in Bosnia and Herzegovina. She is a member of the Commission for the Bar Exam in FBiH.