Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina held today its regular 59th session of the Grand Chamber.
Pursuant to Article 18(3) of the Rules of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Constitutional Court rejected a number of appeals lodged in an untimely fashion, either after the expiration of time-limit for the submission of appeal or prematurely, in the cases in which it was established that the appellants failed to use all available legal remedies in the preceding proceedings.
Deciding on the appeals related to Article II(3)(e) of the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Article 6(1) European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms in regards to the adoption of a decision on admissibility and merits within a reasonable time-limit, the Court adopted a number of decisions establishing a violation of the appellants’ rights to a fair trial and dismissed a certain number of appeals as ill-founded in cases in which it found no such violation.
For the illustration purposes, we note the following:
Constitutional Court dismissed the appeal of the Mr. Esed Radeljaš lodged against the ruling of the Cantonal Court in Sarajevo of 29 December 2014 and ruling of the Municipal Court in Sarajevo of 19 August 2014. The challenged rulings determined a measure of securing a monetary claim in a certain amount by banning the appellant as counter-proponent of the measure securing monetary claim, to alienate, rent or in any other manner burden the real estate, more specifically determined in the enacting clause of the ruling. Constitutional Court, inter alia, concluded that there was no violation of the appellant’s right to property in the present case as the appellant’s right to disposal over property was restricted based on the law, in the public interest and that this restriction is proportionate to the legitimate goal sought to be achieved.
In the decision regarding the appeal no. AP 547/15, raising an issue of efficiency of implemented and suspended investigation concerning the death of the appellant’s minor daughter due to alleged medical error, in the case of County Prosecutor’s Office in Banja Luka, the Constitutional Court established a violation of the appellant’s right to life. Constitutional Court, inter alia, emphasised that the manner in which the investigation was conducted, primarily long periods of deadlocks in the investigation, when no actions were undertaken, as well as the fact that the investigation took 19 years, leads to the conclusion that the County Prosecutor’s Office failed to act in accordance with due diligence and comprehensiveness as required when criminal cases in accordance with Article 2 of the European Convention are concerned. Constitutional Court concluded that in investigating the death of the appellant’s daughter due to alleged medical error, a timely and adequate response in accordance with positive obligation under Article 2 of the European Convention was obviously absent.
The Court rejected the appeals that were manifestly prima facie ill-founded. The facts the appellants presented to the Court in those cases could not have in any manner justified the claim of the appellants that there was a violation of their rights protected by the Constitution or that the parties to the proceedings bear the consequences of the violation of rights protected by the Constitution.
All decisions taken at the session are to be delivered to the appellants within one month time-limit and posted on the official website of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
