The Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina adopted a decision to extend the deadline for resolving war crimes cases for another three years, the Ministry of Justice of Bosnia and Herzegovina confirmed for the Detektor portal. The new deadline now expires at the end of 2028, while it was previously set for 2025.
The extension of the period of the Revised Strategy for working on war crimes cases was adopted on the proposal of the Supervisory Body for monitoring the implementation of the strategy, after the Court and the Prosecutor’s Office of BiH proposed an extension – the Court for three years, and the Prosecutor’s Office for two years.
A member of the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council (HJPC), Sedin Idrizović, who also represents this institution in the Supervisory Body, previously clarified that 49 percent of the cases are still unresolved, while 43 percent of the accused are unavailable. According to him, the position of the Council is that cases in which suspects or accused persons are unavailable should be handed over to the judicial institutions of the countries where they are located.
Associations of victims and their families previously expressed dissatisfaction, pointing out that they were not consulted regarding the decision to extend the deadline.
This is the second extension of the deadline of the Revised Strategy. Originally, the deadline was until 2023, but after it was not met, it was extended until 2025. Now the implementation will last until the end of 2028.
The revised strategy was drawn up in 2018 and adopted in 2020, with the aim of resolving all war crimes cases within five years. The first Strategy for working on war crimes cases was adopted back in December 2008 and predicted that the most complex cases would be completed within seven years, and the others within 15 years – which was not realized, according to BIRN BiH.
