SDA Responds to Tegeltija: We Demand Full Transparency in the Election of the President of the Court of BiH

We consider the statement by the President of the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council, Milan Tegeltija, that the member of the Presidency of BiH and President of SDA, Bakir Izetbegović, interferes with the independence of the judiciary to be absolutely unfounded and untrue, the SDA announced, as reported by Patria.

- It is at least hypocritical of Tegeltija to react this way to a completely legitimate request that the President of the Court of BiH should be a Bosniak, while at the same time, through his silence, he approves the announcements of the President of the RS entity about holding a referendum in this entity on the judiciary of BiH, the decision of the RS Government and the RS National Assembly to cease cooperation with state judicial institutions, the refusal of the RS to implement the decisions of the Constitutional Court of BiH, as well as the final decision of the Court of BiH on the registration of military property in Han Pijesak. Tegeltija also does not react to the open threats from the HDZ BiH that the funding of the Municipal Court in Čitluk will be revoked if the HJPC does not change its recent decision on appointing judges from the Bosniak and Serbian peoples to this court.

The SDA also states that Tegeltija is not bothered by the fact that the President of the HDZ BiH of the Herzegovina-Neretva Canton, Ljubo Bešlić, addressed the High Representative in BiH a few days ago with a warning that „legal violence by the HJPC will not be tolerated.“

- For Tegeltija, it is evidently quite acceptable for HDZ BiH officials to openly blackmail the HJPC or for RS officials to openly threaten the abolition of state judicial institutions, thereby violating or refusing to implement their final decisions. However, he does not find it acceptable that the SDA quite legitimately demands that, during the election of the new President of the Court of BiH, the provisions of the Law on the HJPC be respected, which oblige that, when appointing holders of judicial functions, proportional representation of constituent peoples must be ensured.

The manner in which the current procedure for electing the new President of the Court of BiH is being conducted is the most blatant example of the extremely non-transparent and suspicious personnel policy of the HJPC, whose creator and leader is precisely Tegeltija, and which is slowly but surely undermining the foundations of BiH's judiciary, i.e., the credibility, expertise, and impartiality of the holders of judicial functions, as well as citizens' trust in judicial institutions. Bearing in mind that this is one of the most important positions in BiH's judiciary, the procedure for electing the President of the Court of BiH must be completely transparent; the BiH public must have full insight into the detailed biographies of all candidates, as well as into the criteria based on which the HJPC ranks candidates for this position. In contrast, without any objective reason, Tegeltija is conducting the procedure for electing the new President of the Court in a hasty, irresponsible, and non-transparent manner, which raises reasonable suspicion that behind it all lies some malicious political agreement that will, yet again, result in the election of someone suitable rather than someone who is the most experienced, most expert, most capable, and indisputably possesses the highest degree of moral reputation, impartiality, and professional integrity.

Therefore, we call on Tegeltija to explain to the BiH public why the procedure for electing the President of the Court of BiH is being conducted in such an unacceptable manner, i.e., what exactly are the criteria that guide the HJPC in ranking candidates and making a decision on appointing the holder of such an important judicial position. We also call on him to tell the citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina whether the views he presents in his public appearances are his personal views or the views of the HJPC. We call on all other members of the HJPC to clearly define their position regarding Tegeltija's arrogant actions and statements, because if they continue to approve such actions through their silence and ultimately yield to Tegeltija's arbitrariness, then they too must bear responsibility.