Court of BiH on the verdict for Fikret Hodžić: Why the BiH Prosecutor's Office indictment was rejected

(Patria) - The Appellate Panel of the Court of BiH announced on March 7, 2025, a second-instance verdict by which, based on Article 283, points d) and e) of the Criminal Procedure Code, the indictment against defendants Fikret Hodžić and the legal entity “F.H. Srebrena malina” Ltd. Srebrenica was rejected.

A retrial before the appellate panel was initiated by the decision of the Constitutional Court of BiH, number AP-667/24 dated November 14, 2024. By the same decision, the appeal of Fikret Hodžić and the legal entity „F. H. Srebrena malina“ Ltd. was granted, and a violation of rights was established in the part of the verdict of the Appellate Panel, number S1 2 K 039029 23 Kž 3 dated November 2, 2023, where the appellant’s objection that they did not know what they were accused of was decided. The Constitutional Court of BiH, by its decision, concluded that the appellants' right to a fair trial under Article II/3.e) of the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Article 6, paragraph 3, point a) of the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms was violated, and the verdict of the Appellate Panel was quashed in relation to Fikret Hodžić and the legal entity „F. H. Srebrena malina“ Ltd.

Implementing the decision of the Constitutional Court of BiH, the appellate panel, by its decision dated December 9, 2024, primarily quashed the first-instance verdict in relation to the accused Fikret Hodžić and the legal entity “F.H. Srebrena Malina”, and ordered a hearing to be held, and after the conclusion of the hearing, made the aforementioned procedural decision to reject the indictment.

Such a decision is causally linked to the circumstance that certain legal qualifications in this criminal matter have been legally decided, which primarily relates to the criminal offense of money laundering, which the BiH Prosecutor's Office charged the defendants with in the amended indictment. On the other hand, regarding the criminal offense of abuse of office or authority, the decision to reject the indictment is the result of the full implementation of the decision of the Constitutional Court of BiH, and respect for the imposed standards established by such a decision. In this regard, the Appellate Panel concluded that the legal qualification must always clearly arise from the description of the action attributed to the defendant, and these actions must be presented to the defendant in the investigation records preceding the filing of the indictment, which is why the Law stipulates, in accordance with Article 225, paragraph 6 of the CPC BiH, that an indictment cannot be filed before the defendant has been questioned. Specifically, the defendants were questioned in the preliminary proceedings about the course of events, and in the manner specified in the indictment, however, the description of the actions presented to them does not contain the elements of the criminal offense of abuse of office or authority. Therefore, it was concluded that there are other circumstances that exclude criminal prosecution under point e) of Article 283 of the CPC BiH, given that the defendant Fikret Hodžić and the legal entity “F.H. Srebrena malina” were not properly confronted with the charges against them in the context of the criminal offense of abuse of office or authority.

Finally, we note that in this specific case, a procedural decision was made, not a decision on the merits, and this decision does not delve into the question of the defendants' guilt, but the indictment was rejected due to formal deficiencies in the procedure.