The president of the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council (HJPC) BiH,  said for „Dnevni avaz“ that the release of the transcript of the part of the reportedly intercepted conversations from the court case of the leader of the Alliance for a Better Future, Fahrudin Radoncic, before its presentation at the hearing itself, violated his constitution-based rights, and that an investigation of that event should be urgently conducted. A part of the transcript was released in media on the Internet immediately after the arrest of Radoncic in the setup process.

Sphere of privacy

On more than one occasion, Tegeltija said that the release of the evidence material prior to its presentation before the Court was a criminal offence.

- I do not know if the investigation has been opened, but I believe that it should be opened by all those responsible for the conducting of investigations of criminal offences, because if you intrude into someone’s privacy before the verification of evidence at court, it means that you infringe his/her rights – Tegeltija says.

Asked whether Radoncic’s rights are infringed in the case at hand, Tageltija provided affirmative answer.

Verzija na bosanskom jeziku >>> TEGELTIJA: Fahrudinu Radončiću su narušena prava!

- One can definitely say that in the phase of the procedure, when the evidence was not verified at Court BiH, private conversations of persons were released in the public media space and thus his rights were surely infringed – HJPC president said.

He further indicates that there are various descriptions of the criminal offence which include the release of the evidence material in a procedure.

- It may include the abuse of official authority, obstruction of investigation… Therefore, it includes various legal qualifications of such behaviour and it should definitely be established which of these media and in what way they came into possession of those transcripts, i.e. conversations which, in principle, are protected by the constitutional rights of citizens until they are verified at court as evidence material. Only then, they become public. Therefore, I believe that the investigation should establish that – Tegeltija indicates.

Technical operators

As he says, now it is up to the Prosecutor’s Office and all responsible police agencies to establish the facts in such cases.

- They are all responsible to act if they establish the leak of information in public. And the leak of information occurred, and it should not have occurred. Many people come into possession of the material. Technical operators and other officers may come into possession of the material. They should identify all those who had the material and abused their right – Tegeltija underlined.

Such actions must not happen

Regarding the punishment for this offence, Tegeltija says that it depends on the qualification of the offence, whether it is abuse of position or obstruction of investigation or something else. As he further says, there is only one way to prevent such actions of the individuals in the Prosecutor’s Office.

- Such actions must not happen. Offenders must be punished. That’s the way. There is no other way – the president of the HJPC concluded.