Bosnia’s chief state prosecutor Goran Salihovic is being investigated over allegations that he misused his powers by ensuring that investigations into Bosnian Serb President Milorad Dodik were stopped.
Acting chief disciplinary prosecutor Alena Kurspahic told BIRN on Wednesday that an investigation had been launched into the allegations in the media that Salihovic had used his influence to ensure that several investigations into the leader of the Republika Srpska entity, Milorad Dodik, were closed.
Kurspahic said that everything necessary would be done in order to investigate the claims that Salihovic abused the power of “an appointed bearer of a judicial function”.
On Tuesday, the watchdog organisation Transparency International Bosnia and Herzegovina announced it had submitted a request for the media allegations to be checked, saying they suggested that the chief prosecutor had committed several disciplinary offences.
Transparency International spokesperson Ivana Korajlic said the request was inspired by a media article suggesting that the State Investigation and Protection Agency had evidence and transcripts confirming that Salihovic had discontinued certain investigations for personal reasons and used his position to put pressure on colleagues.
She said that the Office of the Disciplinary Prosecutor had itself revealed it had received a number of negative reports about Salihovic’s work, which were automatically rejected.
“Why were those reports rejected in the end? There is no transparency in the work of the disciplinary prosecutor, because whenever they receive some reports, the public is usually not informed why they are rejected or what they are about,” Korajlic said.
Over the course of the past two years, the Office of the Disciplinary Prosecutor has received six reports regarding the work of the chief prosecutor. Four of them have been rejected, while two are being examined.
(Birn)
