Organized Crime and Coruption Project

Politicians’ comments about a major court in Bosnia-Herzegovina – which covers corruption, organized crime and war crimes – interfere with judiciary independence, according to a report from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) last month.

“While the executive and legislative powers may legitimately scrutinize and comment on the functioning of the judiciary, the (OSCE) Mission’s assessment is that these statements, due to their harsh content, unsubstantiated nature, and frequency, overstep the limits of acceptable criticism and constitute undue pressure on these independent institutions,” stated the report on Bosnia and Herzegovina’s judicial independence.

At issue are the comments of prominent Bosnian Serbs, who stepped up their attacks on the court last year, reported the OSCE, which has monitored criminal proceedings in the BiH courts since 2004.

The end of the 1992-1995 war in BiH left the country divided into two so-called “entities” – the Muslim-Croat Federation and the Republika Srpska (RS) – which for years retained their own police forces, militaries and courts. Earlier this decade, however, international diplomats overseeing the peace agreement helped create BiH’s state-wide court, which has jurisdiction over organized crime, corruption and war crimes.

Attacks Increased in 2009

The report noted that senior politicians and other influential figures, who often attacked the court when they themselves happened to be under investigation or on trial for malfeasance, had increased the incidences of this dramatically in 2009.

Some of the more egregious examples cited in the report included:

• The RS government’s claim that its failure to hand over documents the state prosecutor had requested for an alleged abuse of office investigation, was justified because the prosecutor had no jurisdiction over the alleged offenses.
• RS Prime Minister Milorad Dodik’s denunciation of a criminal report on him that was given to the state prosecutor. He claimed the report was a plot orchestrated by “the foreigners” to get rid of the RS.
• Dodik’s other attacks in the media that have accused the court and prosecutor’s office of being anti-Serb, because the court had not handed down indictments in several cases involving alleged war crimes against Serbs.

The report was clear in its assessment of the atmosphere. “At best, such accusations are wholly unsubstantiated by evidence of misconduct by judicial officials…At worst they represent a clear interference in the aforementioned ongoing criminal investigations. Due to their content and source, these statements are intended to affect unduly how the judges and prosecutors are handling the proceedings in question.”

The organization recommended that the court, the prosecutors’ office and the country’s judicial oversight body all receive constitutional status, to guarantee not only their independence, but also their place among the executive and legislative branches of government. The OSCE also recommended that Bosnian politicians do more to respect and protect the court, particularly the organized crime and corruption section.

-- Beth Kampschror