Public Reprimand for State Prosecutor Miroslav Janjić for Comments on Orić Verdict

SARAJEVO, (Patria) - The Disciplinary Commission of the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council (HJPC) has made a first-instance decision to issue a public reprimand to Miroslav Janjić, a prosecutor at the Prosecutor's Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina, for negligence in performing his duties and for conduct that harms the reputation of the prosecutorial function, Janjić's lawyer Miodrag Stojanović confirmed to the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network of BiH (BIRN BiH).

The proceedings against Janjić were initiated due to comments made after the verdict against Naser Orić and for the delay in filing an appeal against the verdict in the "Gibraltar" case.

"A sanction was imposed – he was found guilty and a public reprimand was issued – and we received the written copy of that decision last week, and we filed an appeal against that decision on Friday. The disciplinary prosecutor also filed an appeal, and both appeals have already been submitted to the HJPC," said lawyer Miodrag Stojanović, adding that he hopes the second-instance decision will be made in the next few months.

At the end of June this year, the Office of the Disciplinary Prosecutor requested the HJPC Disciplinary Commission to determine responsibility and impose a sanction on state prosecutor Janjić for negligence in performing his duties and for conduct that harms the reputation of the prosecutorial function, while the Defense proposed that the lawsuit be dismissed as unfounded.

Mirza Omerović from the Office of the Disciplinary Prosecutor reminded of Janjić's statement to BIRN BiH after the final acquittal of Naser Orić and Sabahudin Muhić for war crimes, in which he stated: "For the court to be the Court of BiH, there should also be Serbs in the courtroom." Omerović noted that Janjić did not preserve the integrity of the prosecutorial function with this comment.

According to the second point of the disciplinary indictment, Janjić is accused of delaying the filing of an appeal against the verdict in the "Gibraltar" case, which was handed down in November 2016.

At the time, prosecutor Janjić stated that his actions were not selective or biased, and that he had never violated impartiality in his conduct.

"There is no one-sidedness, no nationalism in the conduct," Janjić said at the hearing in June this year.

He stated that his comment on the verdict against Orić and Muhić did not shake public trust, but rather could have restored it, given that, as he added, the victims had said they would no longer come and testify, and now it is the opposite.