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SARAJEVO, February 26 (FENA) - The House of Representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH PA) at today’s session will consider a request by MP Dragan Mektić that the Bill on the termination of mandate of the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council (HJPC) in the current convocation is considered in emergency procedure.
The proposed bill provides that the term of office of the HJPC, in the current convocation, will expire on 15 June 2020. By June 8, 2020 at the latest, judicial bodies, bar associations and institutions of BiH that elect members to the Council, in accordance with the HJPC Law, are required to carry out the process of electing new members of the Council it is said in the proposed bill.
He stated that "numerous affairs and illegalities are well known to public in BiH when it comes to what the HJPC should regulate as the most responsible institution in the third pillar of the government, the judicial system".
Mektić believes that everything that is happening in the judiciary is causing huge damage to BiH.
He also asserted that "the HJPC president has unequivocally confirmed that he is under direct political influence” because he accepted the SNSD Executive Committee's conclusions regarding the last Constitutional Court decision.
Mektić believes that it is necessary "to carry out significant reform as soon as possible, above all in the HJPC, and the entire judicial system".
MP Nermin Nikšić (SDP BiH) said he could agree that there are elements of urgency, adding that he also has many objections to work of the HJPC.
“But I find it impossible for this bill, which we have today, to consider in an urgent procedure and to solve all these problems. I am more inclined to consider the bill in more readings,” said Nikšić.
He recalled that a thematic session of the House of Representatives on the work of the judiciary was foreseen, at which arguments should be presented and a better solution could be found.
MP Mirjana Marinković-Lepić (Our Party) said that this is "a way to dismiss the current convocation of the HJPC, which I consider to be urgent because of the attitude of all HJPC members towards the fact that their report was rejected in both Houses".
“Even the president of the HJPC proudly explained that they are independent and that it is very good that the report was not accepted,” said Marinković-Lepić.
MP Alma Čolo (SDA) recalled that Reinhard Priebe (Senior EU Independent Legal Expert) issued a report on the state of judiciary in BiH last year.
“It seems to me that the most difficult situation is in the HJPC. The HJPC is certainly not independent, it has lost public confidence, at least some of its members, and Priebe's report states that confidence in the HJPC and the judicial system in BiH should be restored and that the judiciary does not adequately combat serious crime and corruption,” Čolo said, quoting parts of the report.
Speaker of the HDZ BiH Caucus in the BiH PA Nikola Lovrinović said he would not support the urgent procedure.
“Thematic session is on March 11 and then we can start proceedings to pass a complete bill,” said Lovrinović.
(FENA) A. B.
