CHIEF PROSECUTORS SALIHOVIĆ AND BRAMMERTZ HELD A MEETING. CHIEF PROSECUTOR OF THE PROSECUTOR’S OFFICE OF BIH INFORMED THE ICTY OFFICE OF THE PROSECUTOR ABOUT THE RESULTS ACHIEVED IN THIS AND PREVIOUS YEARS.

Chief Prosecutor of the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina - Goran Salihović met with the Chief Prosecutor of the ICTY - Serge Brammertz.

At the meeting Mr. Salihović informed his colleague from the ICTY about the intensive activities of the Prosecutor’s Office of BiH in the work on war crimes cases, as well as about the information that the Prosecutor’s Office of BiH will have exceeded the figure of 400 persons accused of war crimes in the next few days, which is certainly a significant result in terms of prosecution and punishment of war crimes and the establishment of the rule of law.

It was pointed out that war crimes indictments of the Prosecutor’s Office of BiH have resulted in convictions in 80% of the cases or more which indicates the quality of the evidence obtained.

Indictments are expected to be issued against more than 100 accused persons in this year, which means that the results in 2014 will equal to about 25% of the total number of the accused in the past 10 years, which is rated as significant progress.

Chief Prosecutor Salihović and officials of the Special Department for War Crimes have also informed their colleagues from the Hague about the activities in the prosecution of category II cases which were transferred in their investigation stage to the Prosecutor’s Office of BiH from the ICTY. Prosecutor Brammertz and his team were informed about the indictments issued in connection with the Category 2 cases as well as the activities that will be undertaken in the future.

Category II cases are of the utmost importance for the report which the ICTY Office of the Prosecutor submits to the Security Council of the UN, and it is was concluded that these activities are to be undertaken with maximum intensity.

Regional cooperation between the prosecutor’s offices of the countries in the region was also discussed at the meeting in terms of the efforts aiming to ensure efficient war crimes prosecution, as well the activities undertaken by the Prosecutor’s Office of BiH in the process of searching for and identifying the missing persons.

Prosecutor Brammertz voiced his full support to the colleagues in the Prosecutor’s Office in their work and the prosecution of war crimes, as it is an important segment for the establishment of the rule of law in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the region, and Prosecutor Salihović and his team have expressed their gratitude to the colleagues from The Hague on the exceptional assistance and cooperation in the prosecution of war crimes cases.