A Meeting of Justice Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Republic of Serbia



29 June 2009 – Today in Sarajevo, the Bosnia and Herzegovina Minister of Justice, Bariša Čolak, has had a meeting with Snežana Malović, the Serbian Minister of Justice, which has been attended by the BiH Chief Prosecutor, Milorad Barašin, and  the War Crimes Prosecutor of the Republic of Serbia, Vladimir Vukčević. An understanding about drafting a joint, umbrella agreement on judicial cooperation has been reached at the meeting. In the next 15 days a meeting of expert teams of the two Justice Ministries will take place to intervene in the implementation of the Agreement on Mutual Assistance in Criminal and Civil Matters between Serbia and BiH, in order to overcome outstanding difficulties in duplicating of criminal proceedings and investigations.

Minister Čolak has renewed a demand that BiH citizens - war crimes offenders who committed war crimes in BiH should be prosecuted exclusively by BiH. It has been proposed that joint investigating teams and direct communication between judicial authorities of the two countries should be established and the criteria for the transfer of proceedings in criminal matters should be agreed on.

It has been pointed out that the Dobrovoljačka ulica and Ilija Jurišić cases share the faith of the understanding to be reached soon about a revision of the Agreement on Mutual Assistance in Criminal and Civil Matters.

An assessment shared by the participant is that the meeting has been very constructive and will help further improvement of judicial cooperation of the two countries and resolving of outstanding issues.