DEBEVEC DISMISSED AS PRESIDENT OF THE COURT OF BiH

SARAJEVO, JULY 1 /SRNA/ - The First-Instance Disciplinary Commission of the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council /HJPC/ removed Ranko Debevec from the positions of President and judge of the Court of BiH for breaching his official duties and undermining public confidence in the impartiality and credibility of the courts, the HJPC said in a statement.

Debevec was found responsible for failing, over a period of at least one year and nine months, to act in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Rulebook on the Automated Case Management System in the Courts in 16 cases. As the president of the Court of BiH, he was aware of the obligation to ensure the automatic assignment of cases to judges, as well as his duty to ensure, supervise, and oversee the proper operation of the automatic case-assignment system. The decision may be appealed before the Second-Instance Disciplinary Commission of the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council. Debevac, together with former Director of the Intelligence-Security Agency Osman Mehmedagić and former Court of BiH employee Milisav Pijuk, is being tried before the Special Department of the Supreme Court of the Federation of BiH for corruption, organised and inter-cantonal crime, including abuse of office, forgery of official documents, receiving rewards or other forms of benefit for trading in influence, unauthorised wiretapping and audio-visual recording, as well as false representation.