Judges of the Court of BiH Decide: Izo Tankić New Member of the HJPC, Halil Lagumdžija Returns to the Court in February 2025

(Patria) - The President of the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council of BiH, Halil Lagumdžija, lost the race for a new mandate. The judges of the Court of BiH decided this morning that, from February next year, this institution will be represented in the HJPC by judge Izo Tankić. This means that the current President of the HJPC, Halil Lagumdžija, after his mandate expires at the beginning of February 2025, will no longer be a member of the Council.

According to the Law on the HJPC, the Court of BiH provides one member of the Council. Given that Halil Lagumdžija's mandate is expiring soon, the judges of the Court of BiH decided today who will represent that institution in the HJPC. According to a previously determined draw, it must be a man of Bosniak ethnicity. Judge Izo Tankić and the current President of the HJPC, Halil Lagumdžija, were candidates for this position. Tankić was supported by twenty-two judges of the Court of BiH, while Lagumdžija was supported by 16 judges.

Before the election itself, Lagumdžija put pressure on the judges of the Court of BiH. Namely, on Monday afternoon, he sent them a letter on his own initiative, in which he called on his colleagues to support him again. However, support ultimately failed to materialize.

Halil Lagumdžija will remain at the helm of the HJPC until the end of this mandate, i.e., until the beginning of February. Incidentally, his mandate was marked by numerous scandals, at the center of which was mostly the Director of the HJPC Secretariat and his close associate, Admir Suljagić.

Izo Tankić was born in Koraj in 1956. He graduated from the Faculty of Law in Sarajevo and passed the bar exam in 1981. In 1982, he was appointed municipal public prosecutor in Tuzla, and in 1987, a judge at the Higher Court, where he remained for nine years. For the next three years, he engaged in private legal practice, and from 1999, he served as cantonal prosecutor in Tuzla. By a decision of the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council in 2003, he was appointed Chief Prosecutor of the Cantonal Prosecutor's Office in Tuzla.

He participated in the work of many expert groups and was the President of the Commission for the Appointment of Prosecutors in Tuzla Canton. From 2002 to 2005, he was a member of the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council. He was appointed a judge of the Court of BiH on March 1, 2005, Istraga writes.