A Room for Protected Witnesses in Livno Being Arranged
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Nedim Begic, President of the Cantonal Court in Livno, says that the need for a room for protected witnesses has arisen, so they have determined that the courtroom is not properly set up for upcoming war crimes trials.
The Cantonal Court in Livno embarked on renovating and adapting its premises after the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina had referred certain war crimes cases to cantonal, district and Brcko District judicial institutions for further processing.
Representatives of the European Union previously visited cantonal courts and issued a tender within the IPA project. Begic says that six cantonal courts in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina have been included in the renovation and adaptation project.
“A commission, which will perform the works, visited our premises. The works will be performed by “Elekto metal d.o.o.” from Cazin, while IGH Company from Zagreb will supervise the works. Following their field visits, they provided us with documentation, indicating how the works should be performed,” Begic said.
According to Begic, the Cantonal Court in Livno is responsible for processing war crime cases related to the Livno, Tomislavgrad, Kupres, Glamoc, Bosansko Grahovo and Drvar areas.
As far as the personnel and their qualifications are concerned, Begic says that the Livno Cantonal Court meets all preconditions for processing all potential war-crimes cases.
Commenting on the technical conditions, Begic said that a new courtroom equipped with video-visual recording was built in 2005. Besides that, the Livno Cantonal Court received equipment and link worth about $20,000 US Dollars, which have been tested by technical staff.
“Acting on the IPTF’s instructions, we have also set up two premises for keeping suspects,” Begic said.
Begic pointed out that, once the renovation had been completed, protected witnesses would have an opportunity to use a psychologist’s services.
