The Office of the Disciplinary Prosecutor of the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council (HJPC) of B&H, headed by Alena Kurspahić-Nadarević, should very soon file a disciplinary lawsuit against Ranko Debevec, President of the Court of B&H, regarding allegations of abuse of office and corruption.

Inappropriate contacts

We remind you that several disciplinary cases have been filed against the head of the Court of B&H, and the report that he committed the criminal offense of abuse of position or authority under Article 220 of the B&H Criminal Code and several corrupt acts was submitted to the Prosecutor's Office of B&H in mid-March 2020.

More precisely, the Prosecutor's Office of BiH, upon the report against Debevec that he abused his official position by not declaring property in Spain and dual citizenship, formed the case on March 18th last year and officially informed the Office of the Disciplinary Prosecutor about it.

Debevec was later reported for inappropriate contact with the accused ISA director Osman Mehmedagić, who was tried in the Court of B&H, as well as a number of other abuses of office. All these allegations are being investigated by the Office of the Disciplinary Prosecutor, which officially launched a disciplinary investigation a month ago. After the disciplinary lawsuit is filed, Debevec is facing temporary removal from the office of President of the Court, which is also stated in Article 77 of the Law on the HJPC of B&H.

The law clearly states that a judge or prosecutor may be temporarily removed from office “if disciplinary proceedings have been instituted for a disciplinary offense and the Chamber finds that disciplinary liability cannot be properly established without the judge or prosecutor being temporarily removed from office duties during the proceedings. "

However, the temporary suspension is valid only for the duration of the disciplinary proceedings. In the case of initiating a criminal investigation by the Prosecutor's Office, which is also very certain, the Chief Disciplinary Prosecutor is obliged to propose his suspension, until the investigation is completed.

This means that Debevec could be relieved of his duties very quickly, and in that situation the Court of B&H would be headed by Judge Davor Jukić. In addition, Debevec does not benefit from the report to the Office of the Disciplinary Prosecutor, filed on September 17th last year, for inappropriate attempt to pressure and influence the undertaking of prosecutorial checks in the case against him. The report was filed by prosecutor Vedrana Mijović, who charged and formed a case against Debevec.

Official influence

The report alleges that Debevec put pressure on her by sending her text messages in an attempt to stop or redirect the flow of prosecutorial checks on allegations in the criminal charges against him.

- From the messages sent to me, a clear and unambiguous conclusion can be drawn that, using his influence, the President of the Court of B&H found out that I, as the acting prosecutor, sent requests to the HJPC and CS Ministry of Interior for the submission of official data at their disposal about him - Mijović stated in the report to the HJPC Office.

All these evidence sent to the Office of the Disciplinary Prosecutor speaks in favor of the fact that the head of the Court of B&H committed numerous violations of the duty of a judge.

Inaccurate citizenship information

The Prosecutor's Office of B&H, by inspecting the personal file, determined that Debevec provided incomplete and inaccurate information when applying for the position of Prosecutor, Judge and President of the Court of B&H and filling in the application form for the positions of judge, prosecutor and expert associate, in which he did not state the fact that he also uses the name Ranko Debevec Kaveson,and that, in addition to B&H citizenship, he also has Spanish citizenship, which indicates that he committed a disciplinary offense prescribed by Article 56, item 19 of the Law on the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council of B&H – it is stated in the information of the Prosecutor's Office of B&H.

Limitation period

The procedure for determining disciplinary responsibility must be completed within a year from the day of filing the official lawsuit, according to the Law on the HJPC.