VSTV on the Selection of the Chief Prosecutor of the Prosecutor's Office of BiH: Who Must Recuse Themselves, and Whose Vote Counts Double?

SARAJEVO, (Patria) - Members of the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council of BiH have invited the acting Chief Prosecutor Milanko Kajganić to today's session, who will present his work program as the chief prosecutor of the Prosecutor's Office of BiH, who remains the only candidate in the race for chief prosecutor.

At this moment, no one can predict the outcome of today's session.  

Following the withdrawal of the candidacy of prosecutor Miroslav Janjić, about which he informed the HJPC on September 29, and the elimination of prosecutor Diana Kajmaković, who is under US sanctions, Kajganić remains the only one on the list. 

Council members will ask Kajganić questions, after which they will proceed to vote. Good connoisseurs of the situation in BiH's judiciary emphasize that the entire procedure is contaminated and that it would be best to repeat the entire procedure, regardless of pressure from the international community and other lobbyists. 

However, not all HJPC members will be able to vote. Given that Biljana Simeunović represents the Prosecutor's Office of BiH in the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council, she will not vote for the election of the new chief prosecutor because she must recuse herself. HJPC member Željka Radović must also recuse herself from voting, given that her daughter is employed in the Prosecutor's Office of BiH. She also recused herself in the case when the Second Instance Disciplinary Commission was formed in the case against former Chief Prosecutor Gordana Tadić, who also ended up on the US blacklist.

Therefore, for the election of the chief prosecutor, the votes of 13 HJPC members remain, namely: Halil Lagumdžija (President), Sanela Gorušanović-Butigan, Sanin Bogunić, Lejla Hadžić, Aleksandra Obradović, Saša Sarajlić, Jadranka Stanišić, Duška Bogojević, Davor Martinović, Srđan Forca, Mustafa Šabić, Amila Mimica-Kunosić, Snježana Petković.

If the vote is six to six, the vote of the HJPC President counts double.

Analysts and members of the judicial community recall the EC report on the state of the judiciary for the past year. Kajganić has been acting chief prosecutor since the dismissal of Gordana Tadić in October 2021. According to the EC report, there was no progress in the judiciary during that period. 

"Bosnia and Herzegovina is at an early stage/has achieved a certain level of preparedness in preventing and fighting corruption and organized crime. During the reporting period, there was no progress in this area. Parliament refused to adopt the law on conflict of interest. Political leaders and judicial institutions failed to address the issue of widespread corruption and actively blocked progress, leading to a prolonged stalemate and increasing signs of political capture. The continued lack of progress at all levels of government increases the risk of backsliding. Political leaders and judicial institutions must urgently rectify this situation. 

Although there were some indictments and verdicts related to high-level corruption during the reporting period, the overall results in the area of preventing and combating corruption (including high-level corruption) remain insignificant due to operational inefficiency and political influence. There are systemic deficiencies in operational cooperation between law enforcement agencies in the fight against organized crime, due to uncoordinated criminal legislation, weak institutional cooperation, and very limited exchange of intelligence information. Criminal organizations active in BiH exploit legal and administrative loopholes. The police are subject to political influence. 

Financial investigations and temporary seizure of assets are also largely ineffective. A proactive approach remains crucial in the fight against the infiltration of criminal groups into the political, legal, and economic system. The contact point for cooperation with Europol is still not operational – preparatory steps are being taken. There is no systematic cooperation with Eurojust. Bosnia and Herzegovina should continue its efforts in the fight against terrorism and drug trafficking and improve its capacities for these purposes. A new law on preventing money laundering and terrorist financing, in line with the EU acquis, should be urgently adopted," the Report states. 

Furthermore, the Prosecutor's Office of BiH has not concluded some key cases investigating individuals from the political sphere, which have been dragging on for years. 

In some cases, the Prosecutor's Office of BiH, led by Kajganić, acts expeditiously, while in others it declares itself incompetent, as in the examples of election fraud that have been in focus following the General Elections.

Although the EC warns about insufficiently efficient work on cases of organized crime, corruption, and terrorism, for the Prosecutor's Office of BiH, war crimes cases and indictments ordered by political structures are more important. 

Kajganić also scheduled a case concerning prosecutor Diana Kajmaković, for whom he received information in May that she was mentioned in the communication of criminal individuals who compromised her. Two prosecutors conducted checks that were not completed even by the end of September when the US imposed sanctions on her.

The Prosecutor's Office of BiH has been busy filing indictments against members of the Army of the Republic of BiH and the Ministry of Interior of the Republic of BiH, and as the end of the year approaches, pressure to meet quotas increases, so a "flood" of indictments is expected in the next two months.