What corruption trials look like in BiH: Long-lasting processes, low-quality indictments and minimal sentences

Sarajevo, October 5, 2023 – Long-lasting court processes, insufficiency of indictments, frequent changes in the composition of the judicial panel and minimum sentences marked the largest number of trials for corruption in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which was monitored by Transparency International in BiH (TI BiH) in cooperation with the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BIRN BiH) during the last year. On average, hearings were scheduled less than once a month, and an average of 22 months passed from filing of indictment to the first-instance verdict.

In order to present the findings of trial monitoring , TI BiH and BIRN BiH, with the support of the European Union, organized the conference “Integrity of the judiciary and the prosecution of corruption in BiH”, during which a report on monitoring of 35 of the most significant cases, including 170 persons charged with criminal offenses, was presented. What is worrisome in the work of the judiciary are extremely light sentences based on plea agreements, which are often below the legal minimum, which has a stimulating effect on the perpetrators of criminal acts of corruption.

In the observed period, in seven cases four accused of corruption pleaded guilty  and were sentenced to one year in prison, which can be replaced by a fine. For four persons accused of the criminal offense of corruption, the courts in BiH, imposed sentences of less than one year, while 10 persons got a suspended sentence that will not be carried out unless the criminal offense is repeated.

An example that best illustrates how the judiciary fights against corruption is the case of Zoran Jovanović, a customs officer who admitted organizing a group that smuggled excise goods, causing damage to the budget of over 270 thousand BAM, after which the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina sentenced him to a suspended prison sentence for the duration of one year and six months, which will not be executed if he does not commit a new criminal offense within three years.

The problem of processing corruption in Bosnia and Herzegovina is also influenced by the dynamics of scheduling hearings, which were scheduled less than once a month in the observed cases. The research showed that, on average, the District Court in Banja Luka scheduled 8.5 hearings per case within a year and the Basic Court in Banja Luka 6 times in a year per case, while the Cantonal Court in Sarajevo scheduled 16.5 hearings per case in a year.

Frequent changes in the composition of court panels, especially retirement of judges in the course of the proceedings themselves, as in the cases against Selmo Cikotić and Fadil Novalić, and frequent postponements of hearings, such as in the case against Slavica Injac due to the collapse of Bobar Banka, represent an additional slowdown and prolongation of the proceedings, which diminishes already shaky public confidence in the integrity of the judiciary.

One of the reasons for poor results in the prosecution of corruption is the very quality of the indictments, and in some followed cases, criminal offenses were wrongly listed, such as the case against Zijad Mutap, whose indictment listed a criminal offense that does not exist in the law since 2016, while in the indictment against the former prime minister of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Fadil Novalić, the prosecution did not provide a description of the criminal offense charged against the defendants, specifically the criminal offense of money laundering.

Trial monitoring in selected cases of corruption is carried out from March 2022 to April 2023 before the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Cantonal Court in Sarajevo, the Municipal Court in Sarajevo, the District Court in Banja Luka and the Basic Court in Banja Luka, and the analysis provided the basis for the participants of the conference to confirm the general impression about the judiciary in BiH: it is in a state of permanent institutional captivity, that is, subject to inappropriate influence of political structures and external factors.

Such assessment was confirmed by the Analysis of the Efficiency and Integrity of Disciplinary Procedures against Judges and Prosecutors in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which showed that the mechanisms for ensuring the disciplinary responsibility of holders of judicial functions are insufficiently transparent, complicated and time-consuming, and the method of punishment is relatively mild and ineffective, taking into account the level of responsibility that these functions entail.

Thus, in the observed period, 20 cases were covered in disciplinary proceedings against 26 judges, of which only eight were punished for irregularities in their work, four of which were issued public warnings, while four had salary reduction. There is a similar problem with prosecutors, against whom 12 proceedings were conducted, in which only one prosecutor was moved to a lower position due to negligence in his work, while four were punished with a reduction in salary, with an important note that this measure, according to the Law on HJPC , can last up to one year at most.

Analyzes of disciplinary proceedings against judges and prosecutors as well as trials in corruption cases have shown, once again, that lack of efficiency, low level of integrity and insufficient transparency are the key shortcomings of the judiciary in Bosnia and that a key reform is necessary in terms of planning and conducting the process in court proceedings related to corruption and organized crime, with more efficient use of legal tools and the necessary tightening of the penal policy, the participants of the conference said.