Novalić's legal team withdraws pardon request

(Patria) - The legal team of former federal Prime Minister Fadila Novalića has submitted a request to the Ministry of Justice of BiH and the Presidency of BiH to withdraw the pardon request, filed on February 7th of this year.

This information was confirmed to Patria by Novalić's lawyer Elmir Jahić, who says that such a move was announced about fifteen days ago, given that Novalić has gone to serve his prison sentence in Vojkovići, and therefore the reasons for which the request was submitted have ceased.

- That request was submitted for the reason defined by Article 145, Paragraph 1, Point 9 of the Law on Execution of Criminal Sanctions of BiH. Unfortunately, the public was bombarded with the claim that Novalić submitted the request under the Pardon Law in order to supposedly avoid serving his prison sentence. But no, not under that law, but under the Law on Execution of Criminal Sanctions of BiH.

Submitting a request is foreseen as a reason for postponing the start of the sentence execution, and we added the economic aspect to it, although the emphasis was on the economic execution of the contract.

Judge Braco Stupar, at the time when he was deciding on the request, knew that I had filed a disciplinary complaint against him. He was objective until then, but of course, from that moment on, he was no longer objective, and he decided to take revenge on Fadil.

Ms. Minka Kreho was supposed to clarify that information, but she, as president, did not do so. And then I targeted it through an appeal, asking only to save the face of the BiH Court - Jahić told us.

He repeats that Novalić is currently in Vojkovići, and that therefore the reasons for the pardon request have ceased. However, as he says, he only submitted the request today because he did not have time earlier to go to the Ministry of Justice to do so.

This morning, he points out, he was shocked by the tampered and missing pages in the pardon request.

- These are precisely the pages that were supposed to present in the most vivid way to the members of the BiH Presidency, as heads of the executive power, why it is not good for that verdict to remain in force. That the verdict undermines everything that all three members of the Presidency are fighting for, to preserve sovereignty, to preserve the dignity of the judiciary, and that verdict undermines it.

I see now when I put the pieces together - the Ministry of Justice gives a negative opinion, the pardon request goes through that ministry, it tampers with that request, it removes certain pages...

Pressure is being exerted on two members of the Presidency, who are effectively forced to say in the media that they will not decide on it. Imagine, these are serious people who had to say how they would declare themselves on content they haven't even looked at - Jahić added.

Let us remind you, BiH Presidency members Željko Komšić and Denis Bećirović stated at the beginning of March that they would not support the proposal for Novalić's pardon, who was sentenced to four years in prison in the "Respirators" case.