The Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina held its regular 34th session of the Grand Chamber on 16 March 2016.
The Constitutional Court of BiH considered, inter alia, a number of appeals filed for alleged violations of the appellants’ constitutional rights, which were committed by the ordinary courts.
We would like to note that the Constitutional Court of BiH decides on appeals/cases in chronological order. While determining the order of dealing with cases, the Constitutional Court takes into account importance or urgent nature of cases. The Constitutional Court obligatorily deals with cases in an expedited procedure in case of requests filed under Article IV(3)(f) of the Constitution, electoral rights and decisions on interim measures.
For the illustration purposes, we present the following:
The Constitutional Court of BiH dismissed as ill-founded an appeal filed by Mr. Fahrudin Radoncic against the ruling of the Court of BiH, no. S 1 2 K 020433 16 Kv of 2 February 2016 and ruling of the Court of BiH, no. S1 2 K 020433 16 Krn 13 of 27 January 2016, whereby detention was imposed on the appellant, which may not be longer than one month from the moment of deprivation of liberty, that is 25 February 2016, for the reasons set forth by Article 132(1)(b) and (c) of the Criminal Procedure Code of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The appellant complained in the appeal against the mentioned rulings about the violation of the right to liberty and security of person under Article II(3)(d) of the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Article 5(1)(c) and Article 5(3) and (4) of the European Convention and violation of the right under Article 5(3) of the European Convention in conjunction with the right to independent and impartial court under Article II(3)(e) of the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Article 6(1) of the European Convention and right to presumption of innocence under Article 6(2) of the European Convention, since the Court of BiH and the Prosecutor’s Office of BiH issued joint press release following deprivation of liberty of Mr. Bakir Dautbasic and Bilsena Sahman, which, according to the appellant, amounted to a violation of the appellant’s right to impartial and independent court. According to the appellant, the Court of BiH took one side in the proceedings.
Having deliberated on the appeal, the Constitutional Court of BiH found that there was no violation of Article II(3)(d) of the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina, i.e. the right under Article 5(1)(c) of the European Convention and Article 5(2), (3) and (4) of the European Convention when the Court of BiH found that there was a reasonable doubt and when it gave appropriate reasons for considering that there was a reasonable doubt, when the Court of BiH, in deciding on the issue whether there was a reason for detention under Article 132(1)(b) and (c) of the Criminal Procedure Code, gave specific reasons, and those reasons were relevant and sufficient for justifying the imposition of detention on the appellant in the initial phase, when the appellant was informed of the reasons for deprivation of liberty and factual and legal classification of the actions he was charged with, and when he was given the opportunity to file a complaint against the impugned rulings ordering detention.
Furthermore, the Constitutional Court of BiH concluded that the appellant’s right to presumption of innocence under Article II(3)(e) of the Constitution of BiH and Article 6 of the European Convention had not been violated as prejudging the guilt of the appellant did not follow from the mentioned press release, not even the fact that the press release concerned the appellant’s case.
The Constitutional Court decided on a number of claims on the violation of the appellants’ right to a fair trial. In the cases in which the Constitutional Court found violations of the appellants’ right to a fair trial due to the courts’ failure to take decisions within the reasonable time-limit (Article II(3)(e) of the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Article 6(1) of the European Convention), the relevant courts were ordered to conclude the proceedings promptly and to inform the Court about it within a time limit of three months.
The Court rejected the appeals which were manifestly ill-founded and inadmissible. This concerns the cases wherein the Court found that the appellants’ claims were not justified, i.e. the facts which the appellants presented before the Court could in no way justify the appellants’ claims about the violation of their rights safeguarded by the Constitution or the parties to the proceedings did not bear consequences of the alleged violation of the constitutional rights
All decisions taken at the session shall be delivered to the appellants within a time-limit of one month and posted on the official website of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
