Nearly 300 unavailable for war crimes committed in BiH: 115 in Serbia, 97 in Croatia

(Patria) - There are currently over 200 war crimes cases against known perpetrators in progress, of which 117 indicate the procedural obstacle of unavailable suspects, it was stated on the first day of the session of the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council (HJPC) of BiH, writes Detektor.

As stated, there are 215 war crimes cases involving known perpetrators, and 73 were resolved last year. Of these, indictments were filed in 20 cases, there were 17 decisions not to conduct an investigation, while 18 investigations were suspended.

It is indicative that 117 cases indicate the procedural obstacle of unavailability, meaning 294 persons are unavailable, of whom 115 are in Serbia and 97 in Croatia, while the remaining persons are distributed among other countries.

The Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina has 106 cases against unavailable persons, which is a challenge that the judiciary will face in the coming period.

The acting president of the Court of BiH, Minka Kreho, presenting the work report for last year, said that the court's norm is 149.67 percent, and this number is lower compared to 2024 when it was 167.08 percent.

As she stated, six judges did not have a norm; one of them retired, three were on sick leave, while one judge changed their department.

- The cases of the Court of BiH are complex, complicated, with multiple different matters to resolve, and I would emphasize regarding the Criminal Division, especially the War Crimes Division, that it is increasingly difficult to try these cases due to the age of witnesses, accused, and judges in the panels trying these cases - says Kreho.

She announced that four judges are retiring this year, and eight next year. She stated that the failure to adopt the budget also hindered the Court's work because lawyers went on strike. The failure to adopt the budget, she adds, also has negative consequences on the Court's functioning in terms of capital investments.

The president of the Supreme Court of RS, Daniela Milovanović, said that this court has four departments, and at the end of 2025, they had 25 filled judicial positions. As she stated, three judges were missing at the beginning of last year, who only took office in April.

- We had a considerable outflow of judges; four retired. Another judge retired at the beginning of 2026. The Supreme Court of RS has exceeded its collective norm, amounting to 117.56 percent.

The quality is also satisfactory; only 6.4 percent of appeals were upheld by the Constitutional Court of BiH. We have an inflow of 2,932 cases, and we have a tendency for the inflow of cases to increase. We resolved 2,874 cases - stated Milovanović.

Damjan Kaurinović, president of the Brčko District Appellate Court, presenting the report for the previous year, said that the collective norm achieved was 161 percent, and the president's norm was 108.

He also points out that there were 23 appeals to the Constitutional Court of BiH, of which three were upheld due to a violation of the right to a fair trial, while 86 percent of old cases were resolved. Kaurinović says that the average duration of resolved cases is 162, and unresolved cases is 139 days.

- In the area of corruption and organized crime, we had seven cases in progress, and all were resolved during the reporting period, with property seized worth 142,000 KM.

We had only one war crimes case received at the end of 2025, and it was already resolved in January this year. It involved a prison sentence of eight years - adds Kaurinović.

Council members amended the instructions for preparing plans for resolving war crimes cases in BiH prosecutor's offices regarding the submission of plans, which should be extended by three years, given that the deadline for the Revised State Strategy for War Crimes Cases has been extended.

The deadline for the Revised Strategy for working on war crimes cases was extended at the proposal of the Supervisory Body for Monitoring the Implementation of that document.

The consideration of the adoption of the HJPC Rulebook regarding reporting on assets and interests was removed from the agenda because the response from Brussels has not yet arrived, and it was voted to send an urgent request for its delivery.

- The response we expected from Brussels has not yet arrived, although we had verbal assurances from the EU Delegation that it would arrive on time. Therefore, we must regretfully remove this item from the agenda, hoping it will be on the next session - said the president of the HJPC of BiH, Sanin Bogunić.

The HJPC of BiH has been waiting for opinions from Brussels regarding the engagement of external experts for asset verification. The Council members postponed the decision on engaging external experts for monitoring the Asset Declaration Department to this session.

At the session before last, the HJPC adopted the proposal that Council members would give their opinion on engaging external experts after sending a letter to Brussels requesting harmonization of amendments, after which they would proceed to vote on the Rulebook.

The item concerning proceedings based on the Court of BiH's verdict of December 17, 2025, was closed to the public, as was the evaluation of the work of judicial office holders in prosecutor's offices for 2025.

Detektor previously reported that the Court of BiH annulled the HJPC's decision that overturned the appointment decision due to a negative report on declared assets for the appointed judicial office holder.

- We hope that at the next session, we will have a completely clear situation to make a decision. It is a balance between the rights of the European Convention. We know that this provision adopted by our legislator is not ideal; it puts the Council in a situation where its hands are tied.

The Court pointed this out, and we are seeking the best solution to get out of this situation. This is another situation where it is evident how imperfect provisions can be when laws are passed without professional input - stated Bogunić.

Judge Sanida Valida Ramić of the Municipal Court in Sarajevo has been nominated as a judge at the International Criminal Court.