Hearing Suspended: Salihović Requests Recusal of Mahmut Švraka

The first hearing for suspended Chief Prosecutor of the Prosecutor's Office of BiH Goran Salihović before the First Instance Disciplinary Commission of the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council (HJPC) of BiH was suspended because Salihović requested the recusal of the Commission's President Mahmut Švraka, Patria reports.

As stated by Salihović's attorney Rifat Konjić, his client said that there is a case in the Prosecutor's Office of BiH where Švraka is one of the actors in that case, and that this is the reason for recusal.

Konjić further explained that Salihović is also charged with having failed to seek recusal in the case of Nikola Špirić, and therefore Švraka should have sought his own recusal in this case.

- No one in the HJPC found it appropriate to resolve that request in the previous two months, and today we simply repeated that request - said Konjić.

Now it is up to the HJPC to decide on this proposal and schedule a new hearing.

The Office of the Disciplinary Prosecutor (ODP) charges Salihović with five counts of a series of illegal and dishonorable actions, for which it will seek his permanent removal from all duties, meaning he can no longer serve as a prosecutor at all.

Salihović is suspected of a series of irregularities in the work of the Prosecutor's Office of BiH, for which he was suspended in September.

The disciplinary indictment states that Salihović failed to seek his recusal in cases where there was a conflict of interest, engaged in inappropriate contacts with a judge or parties in proceedings, allowed persons not legally authorized to perform the duties of a prosecutor, interfered with the actions of a judge or prosecutor.

Among the violations are also the intentional provision of false or insufficient information regarding job applications, disciplinary matters, issues of promotion and advancement in service, or any other matters within the jurisdiction of the HJPC, and that his behavior called into question public trust in the impartiality and credibility of the Prosecutor's Office of BiH.

Salihović dismissed the allegations of the disciplinary prosecutor as false.