Schmidt withdraws from personal testimony before the Court in Strasbourg, but what about the British lawyers he hired?

(Patria) - High Representative Christian Schmidt will not address the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg in the case "Slaven Kovačević vs. BiH", it has been confirmed for Politicki.ba by the Office of the High Representative (OHR).

This is a historic decision by the ECHR.

According to it, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) should be one electoral unit, and citizens can vote for a candidate for the BiH Presidency member regardless of which nation they belong to and in which entity they live. Delegates to the House of Peoples of the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH would be elected from among the members of the nations from the territory of the entire country, not just its individual parts.

The Court found that this combination of territorial and ethnic conditions constitutes discriminatory treatment contrary to Article 1 of Protocol No. 12 in the context of the right to participate in elections for the House of Peoples of the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and considers that the same applied to the right to vote in elections for the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

In response to Politicki.ba's questions, the OHR stated that this "was never planned"!?

This is contrary to what was stated to Politicki.ba by the OHR on September 24 this year.

But, let's go in order.

We asked the OHR whether and why Schmidt withdrew from testifying before the Grand Chamber of the ECHR on November 20 this year.

"The High Representative's Amicus Curiae is now with the European Court of Human Rights. The personal participation of the High Representative was never planned," was the surprising answer from Schmidt's office.

They also added that "the case is in the hands of the Grand Chamber of the ECHR and it will make a decision," which we know without them.

On the aforementioned September 24 this year, the OHR sent a different message to the media who asked.

It was emphasized that Schmidt would (gladly) inform the Court in Strasbourg.

"The High Representative will agree to provide independent information to the European Court of Human Rights as an "amicus curiae" (friend of the court), as High Representatives have done in many other cases before. This is common practice," the email sent to Politicki.ba stated.

We immediately debunked the untruth that "High Representatives have done so before".

First, we asked the OHR to tell us when and which High Representative appeared before the ECHR and in which cases. We never received an answer.

Even now, Schmidt has not explained why this turnabout occurred. And we don't believe he will. At least not to us!

However, Schmidt will not be in Strasbourg on November 20, at the session of the Grand Chamber. But his submission, written by very expensive London lawyers, will be. And their argumentation is already known. It is in line with all the proclamations of official Zagreb (except for the one that the ECHR is a 'political court').

The announcement that Schmidt might stand before the judges of the Grand Chamber of the ECHR met with stormy reactions in Sarajevo. Not only journalists and legal experts protested, but also members of the Peace Implementation Council (PIC).

France and Turkey, in separate statements to Politicki.ba, announced that Schmidt does not have the mandate for such actions. And that is the obvious truth. Soon, some other members of the Peace Implementation Council "woke up".

The PIC would "swallow" this latest outburst from Schmidt if they knew that his arguments would prevail in the Court and that he would overturn the first-instance decision of the Small Chamber.

However, the PIC knows that this is a little likely scenario. Therefore, they do not want to enter a battle that is already lost!

Additionally, Schmidt tried to appease his bosses in the Peace Implementation Council with the statement that they should not worry about paying for the services of British lawyers, because the money comes from "external sources", i.e., from money left over from unrealized projects.

PIC ambassadors then asked if the donors knew about this and if they agreed with it? Schmidt did not want to disclose how much the services of the London law firm cost. All the worse for him, because he legitimized speculation.

And even laymen know that such undertakings cost hundreds of thousands of pounds!

Because the firm representing him, in addition to and outside of the living, healthy, and professionally capable Legal Office of the OHR, is very reputable. Translated into Bosnian - very expensive!

Schmidt's decision not to go to Strasbourg could be an indicator that he realized he was fighting a lost battle, so this maneuver is simply damage control (of already huge) damage.

We will know everything immediately after November 20.