ACTING CHIEF PROSECUTOR ADDRESSED THE PARTICIPANTS OF A THREE-DAY CONFERENCE RELATED TO WORK ON WAR CRIMES CASES

Expert training on trial advocacy in war crimes is organized by the OSCE Mission to BiH within the framework of the War Crimes Monitoring Project.

Acting Chief Prosecutor of the Prosecutor’s Office of BiH - Gordana Tadić, addressed the participants at the beginning of the conference: The local participants will take part, together with international experts, in expert workshops in the next three days.

During the workshops, experiences on representing the case, examination of witnesses and presentation of evidence in the courtroom will be exchanged.

In the introduction the Acting Chief Prosecutor pointed out that the Special Department for War Crimes has a total of 28 prosecutors, who work with investigators, legal officers and other specialized staff, and that from the inception onwards the prosecutors have issued indictments against more than 800 accused persons.

‘During 2017, the Prosecutors of the Special Department for War Crimes issued 38 indictments against 89 persons, and based on prosecution indictments last year the Court of BiH rendered imprisonment sentences totaling 155 years.’

‘Also, all Prosecutors of the BiH Prosecutor’s Office achieved a collective quota of 136.42% in 2017; the quality of the indictments amounted to 93.58% and in the Special Department for War Crimes the quota achieved was 118.14% which speaks of hard work and extraordinary efforts of prosecutors and staff in the past year ‘ stated Gordana Tadić Acting Chief Prosecutor.

Several dozen prosecutors and staff of BiH Prosecutor’s Office will take part in the expert conference. The trainers are international experts from the United States.

The Vice-President of the HJPC and the President of the Supervisory Body Overseeing the Implementation of the National War Crimes Strategy - Jadranka Lokmić-Misirača also addressed the audience at the introductory part of the conference as well as OSCE Representative Joeri Maas, Representative of EU delegation to BiH Lejla Hrustanović, legal experts from the U.S. James R.Gailey and Allen Snyder and a judge of the Court of BiH Minka Kreho.

Expert conference and training will last for 3 days.