Prosecutor Halilović: Someone in BiH Wants to Stop Investigations into Complex War Crimes

Prosecutor Munib Halilović said that a “dangerous message would be sent to all prosecutors” if he is disciplined for prioritizing complex war crimes cases instead of working on simpler cases.

In his closing remarks at the end of the disciplinary proceedings for failing to work on a war crimes case, prosecutor Mirza Hadžiomerović requested that Halilović be found guilty, BIRN reported, as carried by the Patria news agency.

Halilović called the proceedings against him a call “to all prosecutors to stop implementing the Strategy for Processing War Crimes.”

Hadžiomerović said that the evidence clearly shows that Halilović, over a period of six years and nine months, did not take any action on a war crimes case concerning the murders of eight people in a camp in BiH.

Acquitting this prosecutor would send a negative message to the public about what is expected of holders of judicial institutions, the disciplinary prosecutor said.

In his closing statement, Halilović responded that it is true he did not work on the disputed case, but only because it is a less complex case under the State Strategy for Work on War Crimes Cases, which mandates that priority be given to the most serious cases.

My plans show that this case was scheduled for work in 2016. So, I did not commit an offense. I only worked according to the orders of the State Strategy and my supervisors, who demanded that we deal with the most serious cases, Halilović said, adding that during his employment at the BiH Prosecutor's Office, he always received high marks for his work.

He added that the disciplinary prosecutor should prosecute those prosecutors who, in order to meet quotas, filed indictments in simpler cases.

A large number of prosecutors in the BiH Prosecutor's Office work exactly like that. There are prosecutors there who have never filed an indictment in a case from the most complex category. That is a job for the disciplinary prosecutor, to ask why some were allowed to choose the easiest cases. I did not work that way, and now I have a problem, Halilović said.

He added that some prosecutors take incidents of rape or individual murders from large cases or investigations and file individual indictments, which is “completely contrary to the Strategy.”

- I admit that at the beginning of this process, I thought it was a mistake, that the disciplinary prosecutor simply did not know why priority was placed on some cases. However, this persistence proves to me that a dangerous message is intended to be sent, that this is the end of the Strategy, that someone wants all cases to be worked on equally, which means that every prosecutor will naturally choose simpler cases, concluded Halilović.

The chief Hague prosecutor, Serge Brammertz, also criticized that the number of 500 or so war crimes indictments filed by the BiH Prosecutor's Office means nothing in itself, considering that “big” cases are still pending.

- Numbers say nothing about the quality, seriousness, severity, and criteria used in selecting those cases. One of the criticisms I personally made, as well as many others, is that many complex cases have been fragmented into several less complex ones and that there is a feeling that priority has been placed on simpler cases, Brammertz explained. He added that he considers it a “significant success,” but that “numbers are not everything.”

Before the closing remarks, former chief prosecutor of the State Prosecutor's Office, Milorad Barašin, testified in Halilović's favor, saying that prosecutors were always required to deal with the most serious and sensitive cases, not smaller and simpler ones.

I remember the cases that colleague Halilović worked on for Kalinovik and Nevesinje. Those were very sensitive and difficult cases. They involved command responsibility and joint criminal enterprise. At one point, he worked on those cases alone because he did not even have a professional associate, Barašin said, adding that Halilović worked up to 12 hours a day.

The State Strategy for Work on War Crimes Cases was adopted in 2008 and mandates that the most sensitive cases be completed within seven years, and all others within 15 years.

The Disciplinary Commission of the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council will render a decision in the case of Munib Halilović at a later date, Patria reports.