Prosecutor's Office of BiH rejected TI BiH's request to submit the indictment against Dragan Mektić and others

BANJA LUKA, (Patria) - The Prosecutor's Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Prosecutor's Office of BiH) rejected the request of Transparency International in BiH to submit a copy of the indictment against former Minister of Security of BiH Dragan Mektić and others charged with abuse of official position or authority. Due to the great public interest in this case, as well as the process of confirming the indictment itself, TI BiH requested the submission of complete information, but the Prosecutor's Office claims that there is no public interest in this case.

"After conducting an examination of the public interest within the meaning of Article 9 of the Law on Freedom of Access to Information, it was determined that the disclosure of the requested information is not in the public interest," states the response of the Prosecutor's Office of BiH. It further states that the disclosure of this information would "cause significant harm to legitimate objectives that include the prevention of crime and any detection of crime."

TI BiH is monitoring this case as part of its monitoring of trials for corruption crimes in BiH, and since the beginning of the monitoring, this is the first time that a prosecutor's office has refused to submit a copy of the indictment. The Prosecutor's Office invoked similar arguments earlier when it repeatedly rejected TI BiH's requests to submit information from completed court proceedings, or information on whether an indictment had been filed in the "Bosnalijek" case. The Court of BiH then, in both cases, upheld TI BiH's lawsuits, concluding that the Prosecutor's Office of BiH had not properly conducted the public interest test, that information on criminal proceedings is generally a public good, and that judicial authorities are obliged to provide it even when a legally prescribed exception exists if the public interest justifies it. Despite established case law, the Prosecutor's Office of BiH persistently refuses to provide all information on criminal proceedings, not assessing the public interest and not conducting the public interest test," the TI BiH statement said.