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The Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina has adopted a proposal from the Ministry of Justice to extend the mandate of international judges and prosecutors at the state level until 2012.
Under the proposal, the mandate of international judges in the Appellate Chamber of the War Crimes Section of the State Court and prosecutors in the War Crimes Section of the State Prosecution will be extended.
The Council of Ministers’ decision has now been submitted to Parliament.
“By the changes and amendments to the Law on the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, we are extending the mandate of international judges in the appellate chambers of the War Crimes Section for a transitional period that will last until December 31, 2012. Each appellate chamber may consist of one international judge only, while other members should be local,” the Ministry of Justice said.
The mandate of prosecutors working with the Special War Crimes Section of the State Prosecution will be extended “beyond December 31, 2009”.
According to the exit strategy of the State Court, the mandates of international judges and prosecutors were due to expire in December 2009.
In addition to the War Crimes Chamber of the State Court and Prosecution, international judges and prosecutors are employed with the Special Section for Organized and Economic Crime and Corruption, but their mandates have not been extended.
According to the proposal adopted by the Council of Ministers, an international judge “can be involved in ongoing cases only if the cases were opened prior to the enactment of this law”.
Data used by the Council of Ministers indicates that there are five cases in which foreign judges are involved.
If Parliament adopts the proposed law it will come into effect on January 1, 2010.
Under the new rules, international prosecutors cannot be deputies to the chief prosecutor or perform the function of managers or deputy managers of the Special War Crimes Section.
At present, international Prosecutor David Schwendiman is the Chief of the War Crimes Section of the State Prosecution. At the same time he performs the function of Deputy Chief Prosecutor.
In late 2007 the Court and Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina supported the initiative to extend the mandates of a certain number of international judges and prosecutors in state judicial organs beyond the transitional period. As part of this initiative, a proposal was made to keep international judges in the appellate chambers of the War Crimes Section beyond 2009. The stay of international prosecutors with the State Prosecution beyond 2009 was also supported in principle.
“The transition process of the Registrar’s Office does not exclude this possibility, or bring into question the idea of extending the mandate of a certain number of international judges and prosecutors due to their extraordinary contribution to the cases they worked on,” President of the Sate Court Meddzida Kreso said in the draft Strategy for War Crimes Processing.
Despite this, in early June 2009 the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina rejected the proposal made by the Ministry of Justice of Bosnia and Herzegovina by which the mandate of international judges and prosecutors with the War Crimes Section was to be extended by two years.
