Halil Lagumdžija new Chair of the HJPC

SARAJEVO, (Patria) - Halil Lagumdžija is the new Chair of the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council of Bosnia and Herzegovina. 

Lagumdžija was elected at today's session of the HJPC, after receiving more votes than Srđan Forca. 

In the second round of voting, he defeated Srđan Forca.

In the second round of voting, Lagumdžija won eight votes, while Forca won seven. In the first round, candidate Biljana Simeunović was eliminated because she received the fewest votes.

The candidate for this position was also Sanela Gorušanović-Butigan, who was the temporary acting Chair of the HJPC, but she withdrew her candidacy just before the session.

Incidentally, Halil Lagumdžija came to the position of HJPC member from the position of judge at the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

He was born in 1960 in Rudo. He graduated from the Faculty of Law in Sarajevo in 1985.

As a law graduate, he began working at the company "Poliester" Priboj, Serbia, starting in 1986. From March 1994 to mid-October 1995, he served as Vice President and President of the Executive Board of the Goražde District. He was appointed judge of the District Military Court in Goražde on October 17, 1995, and held this position until the establishment of the Cantonal Court in Goražde on September 4, 1996, where he worked as a judge until June 30, 2010. From October 2001 to June 2003, he served as President of that court. He was appointed judge of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina on May 27, 2010, and assumed office on July 1, 2010. He was elected as a member of the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council of Bosnia and Herzegovina by the judges of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Biljana Simeunović and Sanela Gorušanović-Butigan were elected as Vice-Chairs of the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

They were elected as Vice-Chairs of the HJPC from among the Serbian and Croatian peoples after Halil Lagumdžija was elected by secret ballot as the new Chair of this umbrella judicial institution.

Both candidates, during the secret ballot at today's session in Sarajevo, received 15 votes each, of which one was invalid.

Biljana Simeunović is a prosecutor at the Prosecutor's Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina. She was elected to the HJPC in November 2020 for a four-year term. In the HJPC, she replaced Jadranka Lokmić-Misirača, whose term expired at the end of last year.

Sanela Gorušanović-Butigan is a judge at the Municipal Court in Sarajevo, and she entered the HJPC in June last year, replacing Ružica Jukić, whose term had expired. Today, she withdrew her candidacy for Chair of the HJPC.