Fabricated trials and false witnesses at the state's expense

Izet Arifović Ćiza will not see justice. He departed for a more just world a month ago. In a letter he left behind, he revealed what half of the judges of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina know, and half do not know and do not want to know, and that is that protected witness O, S, (who knows what letter it will be in other cases) is not telling the truth!

"I am seriously ill and have decided to address the public with this letter, for the last time in my life, for the sake of truth and my family. The only witness for the BiH Prosecutor's Office (he revealed the name in the letter), a Roma man from Bratunac, who was paid and accommodated in Belgrade to lie against us Bosniaks from Podrinje, has become the main witness in many fabricated court proceedings at the Court of BiH, which are managed from Belgrade," Arifović wrote in the letter before his death.

To clarify the specifics of the matter - Ćiza was unconvincingly sentenced by the Court of BiH to ten years in prison on charges of committing a war crime against two Serb civilians from the vicinity of Bratunac in July 1992. The paradox of the BiH judiciary in this case was reflected in the fact that in two separate proceedings before the Court of BiH, a panel of identical composition characterized the testimony of the same protected witness in completely different ways, which undoubtedly leads to legal uncertainty. Namely, the identical panel gave credence to the same witness in the verdict against Ćiza and others – who testified under the pseudonym O-2, while the Court panel in the proceedings against Naser Orić did not give credence to the key protected witness O-1. Do I need to say that O-1 and O-2 are the same person!

The same witness also testifies in the cases of Sakib Halilović and Elfeta Veseli, now under the pseudonym S-1, and the nature of the case is sufficiently indicated by the fact that the prosecutor changed the indictment in half of the cases, not due to formal conditions, but due to changes in the means of committing the crime. The indictment originally stated that Elfeta slit the throat of a boy in Eastern Bosnia, and then prosecutor Miroslav Janjić changed the charge. The indictment now states that Elfeta shot the child!?

Before becoming a protected witness, 0-1, O-2, or S-1 had been finally convicted 11 times for multiple criminal offenses! To this day, it has not been explained how such a thing is possible. How is it possible that the security services of Bosnia and Herzegovina, at least ex officio, did not react in the case of the controversial witness? The Court of BiH offers only a lame explanation that they cannot comment on ongoing cases. But, who can comment on this disaster. More than ten people have been the subject of war crimes trials for years with no end, and from Arifović's example, we see that some of them even pass away without final justice. This certainly leaves room for manipulation of wartime events in BiH. The HJPC is skillfully silent on these circumstances. The state, unfortunately, is meanwhile paying an enormously high price for judicial cowardice, idleness, and arrogance. Where is the accountability of the people in the judiciary?

We are only seeing individuals who, through their struggle, draw public attention to these judicial horrors. It is certain that the legal teams will not sit idly by after Arifović's letter. There can no longer be a question of goodwill from those who judge. It is time for accountability from those who judge without justice and lead citizens into a vicious dark circle, in which even experts from The Hague get lost.