Potparić: The legal system must be stricter, and then we won't have judges accused of bribery

The entire affair surrounding the judge of the Court of BiH Azra Miletić should not be too surprising. You know, the previous system was much stricter than the current one, and you still had judges who were accused of bribery – says Milorad Potparić, retired judge of the Supreme Court of FBiH, pre-war and wartime judge of the Higher Court in Sarajevo, for the Patria News Agency.

A bigger problem than the arrest of Judge Miletić for Potparić are the imprecise laws in BiH, which burden the entire legal system of BiH.

This is not spoken about openly, but it is more than clear that the current legal system of BiH does not have a bright future, unless something is urgently changed.

– The legal system of BiH is imposed, and it is the so-called Anglo-Saxon legal system. It does not suit our country, this concept needs to be changed – says Potparić.

He became known to the BiH public after it was announced that in the 80s he sentenced the current Hague indictee for war crimes in BiH, Vojislav Šešelj, to eight years in prison.

Šešelj was an opposition figure to the then communist regime. He was arrested (in 1984) and sentenced to eight years in prison.

– Well, judges are also human – says Potparić for Patria.

He now spends most of his time at his property in Rakovic.

– Somewhere in the 70s, a Sarajevo judge named Hazim handed down a death sentence for two people, and was later accused of bribery. That was scandalous. You had the general secretary of the Sarajevo court who was sentenced to five years in prison for bribery.

So, I don't think we should make a big fuss about the case of Judge Miletić. It is clear, of course, that everything must be done to minimize such cases. But, at the same time, attention should be paid to other things. Students graduating from law faculties do not have adequate internships, and do not grow into proper judges and lawyers. This must change – warns Potparić.