Lagumdžija is leaving, whose American prompting was more important than the system: He calmly observed the equating of victim and aggressor!

By: Amina Čorbo-Zećo

Halil Lagumdžija is ending his term as president of the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council (HJPC). Even without in-depth analysis, it is clear that he is leaving behind chaos in the judicial system, which will be difficult to recover from anytime soon. Judges of the Court of BiH did not grant him confidence for a new term, so from February 2025, Judge Izo Tankić will represent the judges of the Court of BiH in the HJPC.

It is clear that Lagumdžija will be remembered for the fact that Chief Prosecutor Milanko Kajganić was elected as the sole candidate. Therefore, he was not elected, but confirmed, and only after Lagumdžija initially stated that it would be best to annul the competition, but after a call from the US Embassy, he forgot that in a democracy one is elected, so he abruptly changed his stance.

"Up until the Sub-Council, there were three candidates, and I stated what had happened previously. My initial stance was not to proceed to the final procedure with one candidate. That was also the decision of the Sub-Council; however, the Council as the supreme authority had a different stance. A decision was made to proceed to the final procedure with one candidate, and that candidate received the Council's support by an overwhelming majority," Lagumdžija said on the day Kajganić was appointed in October 2022.

Lagumdžija was neither hot nor cold in his work; it was difficult for him to form an opinion on anything without whispers from the US Embassy, as evidenced by the annulled competition for holders of judicial positions in the Special Department of the Federal Prosecutor's Office and the Supreme Court of FBiH, colloquially known as USKOK.

And, in support of the work of the HJPC and Lagumdžija, the European Commission's 2023 assessment should be considered. The High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council undoubtedly received its worst rating then.

They stated that the HJPC is still struggling to regain public trust, including that of the professional community, "as it continued to make inconsistent and inadequately reasoned decisions on appointment matters".

- The HJPC must strengthen its oversight role and take responsibility for substantive reforms. Tangible results are expected, especially in the fight against corruption and nepotism in the judiciary. The HJPC should increase its own accountability by providing fundamental and transparent reasoning for its final decisions, especially on appointments, in line with European standards – the report states.

But after agreeing to appoint Kajganić as the sole candidate for this important position, it was clear that they would continue as before.

Lagumdžija will be particularly remembered for the fact that during his term, which he will not be able to renew, an attempt at ethnic balance in the prosecution of war crimes before the Bosnian-Herzegovinian judiciary was in effect. The OSCE, in its reports, cited poor investigations by the BiH judiciary regarding war crimes and intentional misdirection as a problem in the prosecution of crimes from the 1990s.

Lagumdžija will be remembered as the person during whose mandate the indictment in the 'Dobrovoljačka' case was filed and confirmed. The case, which concluded in The Hague, was revived by Kajganić and others in an attempt at revisionism, in order to secure a verdict that would tarnish the honorable defense of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

And if the members of the HJPC believe that 'it is not their job', let them re-read the European Commission's report, which emphasizes that the HJPC must strengthen its oversight role.

It is not that they are unaware, nor that it has not been written about them multiple times regarding the unacceptable, one-sided, revisionist, but also illegal, and above all, unjust actions of structures that are rooted and installed in state judicial institutions.

For such actions, there is no other characterization than "Joint Criminal Enterprise" (UZP) aimed at equating the victim and the aggressor during the aggression against Bosnia and Herzegovina in the 1990s, and rewriting history through the filing of indictments by the BiH Prosecutor's Office for war crimes against the defenders of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Sarajevo, as well as through the confirmation of such indictments by individuals in the Court of BiH, apparently regardless of the outcome of the multi-year proceedings.

Because the goal is achieved simply by filing and confirming the indictment. History is already changing, and the question is whether any of the accused, severely ill individuals already in their third age, will even live to see the first-instance conclusion of the proceedings, let alone the finality of the verdict.

None of this affected Lagumdžija, while various scandals incidentally 'slapped' him in the chair of the HJPC president.

And in conclusion, it should be recalled Lagumdžija's statement that he 'thinks the public should know everything about the work of the judiciary'.

Clearly, in the end, we know nothing, but everything is clear to us. We live in a system of selective justice, fabricated indictments, a lack of fight against corruption, nepotism, and politically motivated prosecutions – whenever it suits someone.