The Office of the Disciplinary Prosecutor of the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council (HJPC) of B&H, headed by Alena Kurspahić-Nadarević, has been investigating for exactly one year whether Ranko Debevec, President of the Court of B&H, committed a disciplinary offense related to allegations of abuse of office and corruption. 

Notification has been sent

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 law and several corrupt acts was submitted to the Prosecutor's Office of B&H on March 18th last year.

Immediately after the report that he abused his official position by not declaring property in Spain and dual citizenship, the Prosecutor's Office of B&H was officially informed about it by the Office of the Disciplinary Prosecutor. 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.

However, the question is why, given all the evidence that the Office received in November last year, and which was obtained by the Prosecutor's Office through international legal assistance, no disciplinary action and procedure have been initiated.

In addition to the lawsuit, as we have already stated, Debevec is threatened with temporary removal from the position 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."

However, there is growing speculation that individuals in the Office of the Disciplinary Prosecutor, although they informally announced the lawsuit last week, want to save Debevec from disciplinary responsibility at all costs, seeking additional time for investigation.

What the law states

Namely, the Law on the HJPC states that the procedure for determining disciplinary responsibility must be completed within one year from the day of filing the report.

That deadline officially expired yesterday. Therefore, the Office of the Disciplinary HJPC would have to file a lawsuit, if nothing else, by the end of the week. When we asked what happened to the disciplinary investigation, we were answered as in previous months - "disciplinary proceedings have not been initiated." Although numerous pieces of evidence published in the media have confirmed that Debevec committed numerous disciplinary offenses, the Office is silent about it for now.

He hid the information when applying for the position of judge

- 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 position 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 Bi& citizenship, he also has another citizenship – Spainish one, which indicates that he committed a disciplinary offense prescribed by Article 56, item 19 of the Law on High Court and the Prosecutorial Council of B&H - Prosecutor's Office of B&H stated.