Muriz Memić Calls on Citizens to Support Protests of Minister Dragan Mektić

SARAJEVO, (Patria) - The father of the murdered Sarajevo youth Dženan Memić has called on citizens to support the Minister of Security of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Dragan Mektić, who is calling for peaceful protests in front of the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council of Bosnia and Herzegovina (HJPC).

Muriz Memić told the Patria agency that the judiciary in Bosnia and Herzegovina has hit rock bottom, and that he supports Minister Mektić in his efforts to have compromised members of the HJPC and members of the Prosecutor's Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina step down from their positions.

"This has gone beyond all measure. The judiciary does not react even when there is clear evidence that its members are corrupt," said Memić, who, in his three-year efforts to find the killers of his 22-year-old son, has repeatedly proven irregularities in the work of the Sarajevo Canton Prosecutor's Office, which is leading the investigation in that case.

"That is why I will join the protests led by Minister Mektić," added Memić. 

The magazine Žurnal published a text about the involvement of the President of the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Milan Tegeltija, in a corruption affair, in that he was supposed to influence the then Chief Prosecutor of Sarajevo Canton, Dalida Burzić, to expedite a criminal case, while Marko Pandža, an inspector of the Agency for Investigation and Protection of BiH (SIPA), took 2,000 KM from a businessman from Velika Kladuša for that service of HJPC President Milan Tegeltija, noting that he would use that money to "shoe" Tegeltija. 

Neither HJPC President Tegeltija nor Inspector Pandža have stepped down from their positions after finding themselves at the center of a judicial scandal, while Tegeltija called the entire case pressure on the HJPC, after which he requested police protection.

The Minister of Security of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Dragan Mektić, called on citizens to gather in front of the Court and Prosecutor's Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina next week in Sarajevo, where the HJPC is also headquartered, as a response to the corruption scandal shaking the judiciary in the country.

"To save both the state and ourselves, it is necessary to bring down this criminal HJPC. I propose a mass gathering of citizens next week in front of the Prosecutor's Office and Court of BiH (the HJPC headquarters is there), as a democratic form of pressure for resignations," Mektić wrote on his Twitter on Friday evening.

The HJPC is the umbrella institution in Bosnia and Herzegovina that monitors the work of courts and the prosecutor's office of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Several domestic and international organizations have warned about the corruption of HJPC members, which directly affects the work of the prosecutor's office and courts in Bosnia and Herzegovina.