Bosnian Bureaucratic Failures Endangered Protected Witnesses

Several dozen protected witnesses in complex war-crimes and organised crime cases were left without protection and support from January to June this year because a commission to ensure the continued implementation of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s witness protection programme was not set up in time, BIRN has learned.

During those six months, “nobody was in charge and nobody could have rendered a decision to extend the programme in the absence of the commission”, said Vahid Alagic, a member of the commission, which is now operating normally again.

“The witnesses and their families were put in a very difficult position, which means they lived in a sort of legal, financial and everyday uncertainty,” Alagic added.

The problem had its origins in 2014, when after a proposal by Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Council of Ministers, the law governing the witness protection programme was revised with the aim of harmonising it with European standards.

According to the revisions, all decisions related to people covered by the programme could be only made by the commission, which should have been formed no later than 30 days after the revisions came into effect.

But after the revisions of the law were made and before the commission was established, some protection programmes had already expired.

“This created a legal insecurity among people who are willing and ready to testify in cases covering the gravest crimes. It turned out the state had no mechanisms to protect them at a certain moment,” Alagic said.

The six-month delay began after the state prosecution and court failed to propose a list of members who would represent them at the commission.

On top of that, the commission’s ethnic representation requirement, ensuring that Bosniaks, Croats and Serbs were all involved, was not fulfilled.

Dragan Mektic, Bosnia and Herzegovina’s minister of security, said he urged the state court and prosecution to submit their lists of commission members several times. But when the names were finally submitted, there was another wait for the state prosecution to propose a Serb member for the commission.

“The ethnic representation requirement is to be blamed for everything. It should not have been given priority over the lives of witnesses and criminal proceedings,” he said.

Mektic added that during the period from January to June, several people who should have been covered by the witness protection programme told him they had no means to support themselves, that their rents abroad had not been paid and that they were in danger.

As the state prosecution failed to propose a Serb member for the commission, it was eventually formed from Croats, Bosniaks and others, and began to ensure witnesses’ safety again.

“The commission renewed the contracts immediately and solved the witnesses’ problems,” Alagic said.

Witness protection: how it works

Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Commission for the Implementation of the Witness Protection Programme decides on what type of protection programme a witness will be granted and for how long it will be in effect.

Proposals for including certain witnesses in the protection programme can be made by the state prosecution, the state court or the witnesses themselves.

The programme can be activated in cases covering crimes against the state’s integrity, crimes against humanity and international humanitarian law, organised crime and crimes for which perpetrators can be jailed for five or more years.

“People without whose testimonies it would be impossible or considerably more difficult to investigate or determine facts in criminal proceedings or determine the place of residence of suspects are included in the protection programme,” Alagic explained.

The programme can also be extended to other people close to witnesses, like family members, spouses or others who, in the witness’s opinion, need protection.

The programme can last for one or several months, or even years if necessary. Several dozen people have been admitted to the programme so far.