CHURCH IN OLOVO REGISTERED AS PROPERTY OF MUNICIPALITY AND SOC

ISTOČNO SARAJEVO, MARCH 5 /SRNA/ - The Municipal Court in Visoko registered two entities as sole owners of land belonging to the Serbian Orthodox Church /SOC/ in Olovo, which is impossible, Đorđe Radanović, president of the Committee for the Protection of the Rights of Serbs in the Federation of BiH /FBiH/, told SRNA.

Radanović pointed out that, by inspecting the electronic land registry, they found that the church in Olovo was registered as owned solely by the Municipality of Olovo and the Serbian Orthodox Church Municipality of Olovo. “Anyone who owns a plot of land knows that there cannot be two owners with sole ownership of the same property. How is it possible for the Municipality of Olovo to be registered as the owner of a church? The mosque was properly registered as the property of the Islamic Community, as the sole owner, and not the municipality. Why, in that case, did they not also register the municipality as a sole owner there?” Radanović asked. He stressed that in legal practice it is impossible for two entities to be registered as owners of the same property with full ownership rights, reminding that the Orthodox church at that location was built and consecrated in 1939. He added that it is logical for the Islamic Community to be registered as the owner of an Islamic place of worship and that no one else should have any registered rights over a mosque, but it is equally logical that no one except the church should have registered rights over church land. “Only the SOC can have registered rights over the church and the land around it. No one is asking to be privileged, only that the authorities treat religious communities equally,” Radanović said. If the court found it necessary to further establish ownership facts, Radanović stated that it could conduct an examination procedure according to Article 64 of the Law on Land Registers of the FBiH. “We call on the Municipal Court in Visoko to correct the error ex officio, in accordance with the provisions of the Law on Land Registers of the FBiH. The municipality cannot in any way be the owner of a church,” Radanović concluded. He believes that someone who manages the electronic land registry system must have granted special approval for such an entry to be recorded. Radanović pointed out that such a registration could not have been carried out through the “Laris” program /Land Registry Information System/, which courts in the FBiH use to manage and maintain land registers. He also pointed out that in the electronic land registry system “Laris,” the parcel on which the Orthodox church is located is marked with the ownership type “unknown”, which, he says, is not provided for by the regulations governing property rights and the keeping of land registers in the FBiH.