IT IS NOT FREEDOM OF SOMEONE'S WILL, BUT A RIGHT. Creators of the media plan for the 'Respirators' case in a panic, why are they afraid of comments?

By: Amina Čorbo-Zećo

There is nothing in the Criminal Code of BiH that states that verdicts delivered before the Court of BiH cannot be commented on. However, the media, which were, and still are, part of the BiH Prosecutor's Office's media plan and narratives in which the accused become guilty even before the trial begins, are now convincing us that everyone who speaks publicly about the illogicalities in the Respirators verdict is on the side of crime. Or on the side that supposedly undermines the rule of law in BiH!

They are not honest enough to admit that the rule of law in BiH has not been alive for a long time, if it ever was, because judging by the processes and politically motivated indictments, it will not be alive for a long time!

And contrary to every normal reaction, the Editorial Board of TVSA, after the news that they censored a report in which lawyers Mirna Avdibegović and Tatjana Savić spoke about the Respirators verdict, emphasizes that they respect the principles of free reporting, critical and objective journalism, especially in cases of final court decisions that, in their opinion, should not be commented on!

Only the verdicts of the Constitutional Court are not commented on, and even that is an open question in BiH, and we remind our colleagues that Anglo-Saxon law allows addressing the public even from prison if the convicted person offers new facts.

And the BiH Constitution was written with a mix of Anglo-Saxon and continental law. Judging by what the convicted persons in the Respirators case are presenting, there are many new facts, as well as legally bizarre statements in the verdict of the Court of BiH.

Because until now, only those who participated in the famous 'media plan' have spoken, so the public could only judge based on the disseminated narrative, which often deviated from the facts.

We remind you that at the first hearing on the proposal of the BiH Prosecutor's Office to order detention for the arrested Prime Minister Novalić Fadil, director Solak Fahrudin, and director Hodžić Fikret, one sentence was actualized, and that is that 'the prosecution has its media plan'. After that hearing, some journalists, participants in the media plan, said that based on everything they heard, 'the prosecution has no case'.

However, it is obvious that they had their 'media plan' considering that never in the history of the judiciary has such a media hunt on suspects/accused and the entire procedure been recorded, and the prosecutors of the BiH Prosecutor's Office even referred to media reports when presenting their closing arguments.

And they didn't just do that; as early as the investigation phase, specifically on May 11, 2020, at a time when general paranoia and fear related to the new disease COVID-19 prevailed, the BiH Prosecutor's Office published part of its expert's findings on its official website, stating that the procured respirators were not suitable for the treatment of COVID-19 patients.

This not only poisoned the public with such information, which was neither verified nor presented in court, but it also put a target on the backs of the then-suspects, implying they wanted to kill people, violating every aspect of the presumption of innocence. Doctors felt fear to even use those respirators, even though they had not yet been distributed to hospitals and clinical institutions.

Because of this, patients felt aversion towards health institutions and doctors (about which the head of the Clinic for Anesthesia and Resuscitation at KCUS, Dr. Katica Mulalić Amela, testified before the Court of BiH). In this way, the BiH Prosecutor's Office acted completely socially insensitive and disturbed the citizens, endangering numerous lives.

And now, both the Prosecutor's Office and its media outlets want to be spared such analyses. Why?
Media reporting intensified throughout the proceedings, and it was accompanied by statements from high-ranking officials in BiH, both domestic and foreign, who commented on the 'live case', making qualifications about the guilt of the accused.

Now that the process is 'half dead', they want to prohibit experts and even the convicted from speaking! Incomprehensible and unacceptable in a democratic society. At the same time, it should be recalled that the media loyal to the Prosecutor's Office used precisely these democratic values of society while labeling the suspects, forgetting the presumption of innocence. At that time, they used terminology such as - 'respirator mafia', 'organized crime', 'plundering of citizens during a pandemic', 'the biggest scandal in the history of BiH', etc. All of this during the criminal proceedings.

And today, Edin Forto and others object that verdicts should not be commented on. But the order of events was reversed, when the actors of the media plan, including political representatives and the diplomatic corps, exerted pressure on the court during the proceedings. A comment on a verdict cannot be considered pressure on the court and judiciary, because everything is already finished. Or is it not, which makes the panic even greater!?