Grubeša: I cannot reform the judiciary

Recently, the Provisional Investigative Committee of the House of Representatives of Bosnia and Herzegovina requested the dismissal of the Minister of Justice of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Josip Grubeša. The minister explained to N1 why he considered this request populist.

Why do you refuse to appear before the Provisional Investigative Committee?

The real truth is that the Committee called me twice for a so-called hearing. The first time the invitation was for Monday, and the second for Tuesday, and my office stated that I could not attend for objective reasons. Then some accusations started through the media. At first, I thought the Provisional Investigative Committee would provide some progress and guidelines, but we see that for half a year it has been dealing with trivial matters.

Is the reason for your absence that you don't have much to say? The European Commission's report, presented on October 6 last year, states that there has been no progress in the judiciary?

They are certainly experts who can define that. I regret that they treated me this way, that my dismissal is being sought in a populist manner. The Minister of Justice is not the one who can carry out judicial reform; I can only initiate it.

What did the Ministry of Justice of Bosnia and Herzegovina do in 2020?

2020 was a pandemic year. It is easiest to attack the judiciary and say it is not good. I will not say it is good, but it is not catastrophic.

Judge Nenad Šeleda of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, testifying before the Provisional Investigative Committee for determining the situation in judicial institutions of BiH, stated that the prosecution is the weakest link in the country's judicial system. Do you agree with that assessment?

The judiciary at the level of Bosnia and Herzegovina is only 10 percent of the judiciary in the country. Therefore, I would not delve into these assessments. What we tried to do in the Ministry of Justice is to correct all the shortcomings we noticed through legal regulations. So, every institution has its shortcomings, including the HJPC and the BiH Prosecutor's Office, etc.

Our judiciary is so afraid of public pressure that it has become alienated from itself. The judiciary is, after all, the third pillar of power in a country.

The Council of Ministers of BiH did not consider the Proposal of the Decision on the formation of the Supervisory Body for monitoring the implementation of the Revised State Strategy for processing war crimes cases. Why?

There was a proposal at the Council of Ministers, but we had substitute members who did not reflect the national structure, and they could not vote. Regardless, judicial institutions must work on war crimes cases.