UBLEHA AND BiH JUDICIARY EVEN IF IT'S TOO MUCH FROM HALIL: On July 11, the head of the HJPC justified prosecutors for genocide deniers!

By: Amina Čorbo-Zećo

For a long time, the judiciary, and Milan Tegeltija, for example, passed through it, has not seen such an 'exceptional' figure like Halil Lagumdžija, president of the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council (HJPC), who, lacking any charisma, presents a lavish ignorance and disinterest in progress to the public.

As the people would say – he doesn't meddle in his own business.

Following the principle of 'don't rock the boat,' Lagumdžija has been acting since his appointment to this position. Previously, he was a judge at the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, coming from Goražde, a city where the greatest war crimes against Bosniaks have still not been prosecuted, but on the other hand, with Lagumdžija's nod, indictments were raised against Bosniaks, such as the well-known Jošanica case! Of course, it was not on the Hague A list, like countless others such as the cases Dobrovoljačka, Čemerno, Lukavac, Konjic, Ramiz Dreković, Atif Dudaković, and others...

But Lagumdžija shrugs his shoulders at fabrications and a real farce. Even on July 11, the day of remembrance and collective funeral for the Bosniaks brutally killed in the genocide in Srebrenica, Lagumdžija finds it necessary to explain why prosecutors are not prosecuting genocide deniers.

Thus, the head of the HJPC tells us that in informal conversations with prosecutors, he heard that the provision regulating the issue of genocide denial is not legally perfect (!?) and that some prosecutors believe it is unexecutable, that it is difficult to prove that denying genocide against Bosniaks can produce negative consequences.

Interestingly, Lagumdžija did not seek an explanation as to how, for example, the Dobrovoljačka case is legally sustainable if it was concluded in The Hague, and even in courts in Vienna and London. Lagumdžija remained silent even on every letter from the accused in this case, in which they sought protection from inequality in proceedings, as well as from fabrications by the BiH Prosecutor's Office, which copied the indictment in Ekavian dialect from the Serbian prosecutor's office!?

None of this is problematic for the HJPC and Lagumdžija, who still boasts of being an experienced judge!

„Yes, as an experienced judge, I know about the good practice of prosecutor's offices. When they have some new regulation that is not entirely clear to them, they start with some pilot cases, a small number of cases, some of the most characteristic cases, they indict and prove it before the court, the court takes a stance, and then it is a good indicator for them that the regulation is good, whether they are on the right track. I think they started with this relatively late – the first indictment has been on trial since March or April of this year, and a second was confirmed a few days ago, while an indictment from an earlier period was dismissed,” Lagumdžija will say on FTV.

Lagumdžija does not know that his primary task is to determine what has been waited for so far, not to provide an alibi for prosecutors who are not doing their job!

Perhaps he forgot that the Council, as an independent and autonomous body, has the primary task of ensuring an independent, impartial, and professional judiciary, as stipulated in Article 17 of the Law on the HJPC of BiH. It is not his task to interpret and justify prosecutors, and to shrug his shoulders at their fabrication of indictments in an attempt at historical revisionism.

Among other things, the HJPC supervises the professional development of judges and prosecutors, so it remains unclear why training was not provided if they do not know how to prosecute genocide deniers!

These explanations about insufficient legal experience also burden the HJPC, and the informal conversations of prosecutors with Lagumdžija support the claim that these two institutions are in deep collusion.

In essence, from his appointment in 2021 until today, Lagumdžija has only talked and explained, without concrete results. He said that we are patching up the judicial system so it doesn't collapse, and that it is not in the interest of any normal person to have people connected to crime.

But he has undertaken nothing concrete. Except that on July 11, he justified prosecutors for not prosecuting genocide deniers, thus pouring salt on the wounds of the surviving victims, who, on that very day, as well as officials at the commemoration, emphasized that we are still living the genocide, and its last phase at that, when it is being denied! And if it's from Lagumdžija, it's too much!