prijava
SARAJEVO, February 14 (FENA) - Minister of Justice of Bosnia and Herzegovina Josip Grubeša (HDZ BiH) commented, in an interview with FENA, on the request for his dismissal and said that problem is never in one person but in the functioning of the entire system.
“It is not a problem whether I or someone else will perform the duty of a minister, the problem is the system and the way it functions. It is clear that we are all dissatisfied with the implementation of reforms in BiH and we all want it to be simpler and more accessible as soon as possible, but the constitutional order of BiH must be respected,” he added.
The Ad Hoc Inquiry Commission of the House of Representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina to determine the situation in BiH judicial institutions has initiated a request for the dismissal of Minister Grubeša, considering him responsible for problems in the judiciary.
Grubeša says that six months of the Commission's work focused on hearings and the presentation of personal political views as the only correct ones, and because of that he thinks that he should also appear before the members of the Commission to tell the other side of the story.
He was twice invited to attend the session so that members of the Commission could ask him about topics they considered important for BiH, but the Minister did not respond to two invitations, informing them that he was not able to.
“I intended to ask them why do they believe that they are real experts who can improve the situation in the judiciary, but I could not attend the hearing on two calls, and they reacted violently and started collecting signatures for my dismissal on the next session of the House,” said the Minister.
He reiterated his position during the dismissal of the President of the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council (HJPC), Milan Tegeltija when he said that the problem was not in one person but the system, recalling that there are certain competencies of all institutions and it is not the Ministry of Justice that should to pass laws.
That institution can be the initiator and coordinator of the adoption of laws, but it cannot be the creator of the legal solution, especially having in mind how the judiciary is organized, he explained.
On the Commission's objections that Grubeša did not do his job, he reminded the members of that parliamentary body that the state prison was opened in the pandemic year and that institution employed more than 200 people.
Responding to accusations about a small number of laws that the Ministry sent to the parliamentary procedure, Grubeša says that a large number of submitted laws were not adopted, and one of them is law on deadlines in the judiciary.
However, he says that despite all the shortcomings in the judiciary that he is aware of, he as a minister must be on the side of the judiciary and protect those people who are doing their job right.
He reminded that the reform of the judiciary began in 2003 when a new system was established, including the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council, and the Minister assessed that it would take some time for people to get used to the new way of working.
He thinks it is sad that individuals give themselves the right to comment on the situation in that area, but are not familiar with how the judiciary is organized in BiH because only 10 percent of the judicial system in BiH is at the state level, and the burden of bad work is addressed to the state level and the Minister of Justice.
“The reform of the judiciary must not stop, it must be done properly and no one must be excluded from that process so as to ensure that the judiciary as the third pillar of a democratic society be of better quality,” Grubeša emphasized.
In the previous mandate, the adoption of the law on courts came very close, and it foresaw the introduction of the Higher or Appellate Court, which will be debated at the Constitutional Court as well.
Working groups were set up, many people were involved in the process, it came almost to an end and then everything stopped. They now have a similar situation with the amendments to the Law on the HJPC, for which a working group has also been formed, in which all relevant institutions are represented.
One meeting was held with the Venice Commission and identified the problems in the proposed Act and their opinion should come in March so that their proposals could be incorporated into the Act.
He emphasizes that the court and the prosecution cannot be together and that they should be separated, and when considering the regulation of the HJPC, the formation of two sub-councils should be considered, one concerning elections and everything else concerning courts and the other concerning prosecutors.
In an interview with FENA, BiH Minister of Justice Josip Grubeša also referred to the Revised War Crimes Prosecution Strategy, explaining that the Supervisory Body, which is obliged to report to the Council of Ministers on war crimes prosecution four times a year, should be appointed soon.
At the session of the Council of Ministers of BiH, the proposal for an appointment did not pass because there was no ethnic reciprocity among substitute members and now they are waiting for the submission of new names, after which the body should be appointed.
He reminds that the main goal of that strategy is to process war crimes by 2023, and two years have already been lost while waiting for the adoption of that document, but the Minister believes that the prosecutor's offices in BiH will be able to complete all cases within the set deadline.
These cases must be resolved, Grubeša says, regardless of which category they fall into, and less complex cases can be transferred to lower prosecutor's offices. He also called for dismissing suspicions that lower-level prosecutors are less prepared to prosecute war crimes.
The revised strategy also stipulates that persons who are not available to the BiH judiciary be prosecuted in those countries to ensure that justice is served, and believes that there should be no mistrust that war crimes be prosecuted by neighboring countries so that cases do not "stay in drawers".
(FENA) A. B.
