Cantonal Prosecutor's Office: No investigation is being conducted against Senad Avdić and Dražen Zubak

The Cantonal Prosecutor's Office responded with a denial to the claims of the editor of „Slobodna Bosna“  and the Association of Journalists of BiH that this Prosecutor's Office had opened a criminal investigation against the editor-in-chief of „Slobodna Bosna“ Senad Avdić and lawyer Dražen Zubak, reports the Patria news agency.

The Cantonal Prosecutor's Office of Sarajevo Canton has not opened and is not conducting a criminal investigation against the editor-in-chief of Slobodna Bosna and lawyer Dražen Zubak. Namely, upon receiving a report from S.A., the Prosecutor's Office was legally obliged to verify the allegations of that report. Therefore, a request was sent to the FMUP for the collection of information and evidence, and for the hearing of the complainant, as well as witnesses – journalist Senad Avdić and lawyer Dražen Zubak. Thus, the summons was issued to verify the allegations of the report, and Avdić and Zubak were summoned as witnesses – state from the Cantonal Prosecutor's Office.

Furthermore, they state that it should be borne in mind that the ZKP FBiH prescribes that persons who would violate the duty of professional secrecy by their testimony cannot be heard as witnesses (Article 96, paragraph 1, point c of the ZKP FBiH), unless these persons are released from that duty - by a special regulation or a statement of the person in whose favor the secrecy was established.

- In this specific case, the summoned journalist Senad Avdić and lawyer Dražen Zubak, if they are already persons who cannot testify, invoking this article of the ZKP FBiH, cannot be heard as witnesses either. Of course, the competent authority that is to take the statement, when summoning persons, cannot know whether these persons summoned as witnesses fall into the category of witnesses who cannot be heard.

And finally: journalist Senad Avdić and lawyer Dražen Zubak were summoned as witnesses for the purpose of verifying the allegations of the report, and they could have refused to testify if their testimony would have violated the protection of professional secrecy; no investigation is being conducted against journalist Senad Avdić and lawyer Dražen Zubak in the Cantonal Prosecutor's Office of Sarajevo Canton.