Article 2 paragraph 2 of Protocol No. 7 to the European Convention provides for exceptions to the rule referred to in paragraph 1 of the same Article which stipulates that everyone convicted of a criminal offence by a tribunal shall have the right to have his conviction or sentence reviewed by a higher tribunal as the exception if provided for in cases in which the person concerned was tried in the first instance by the highest tribunal or was convicted following an appeal against acquittal. Taking into account the fact that the instant case concerns a convicting verdict whereby a verdict on acquittal was revoked upon an appeal lodged by the BiH Prosecutor’s Office, and that the verdict was rendered by the Court of BiH as the Supreme Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Constitutional Court concludes that the fact that the second appellant was not given an opportunity to pursue further legal remedies is not in violation of the principle of the European Convention given the exception referred to in Article 2 paragraph 2 of Protocol No. 7 to the European Convention.
• Decision on Admissibility and Merits No. AP 2281/05 of 6 July 2007, paragraph 42, published in the Official Gazette of Bosnia and Herzegovina, 79/07
The Constitutional Court concludes that the impossibility of filing an appeal against the verdict of the Court of BiH, Appellate Division Panel of Section I for War Crimes, by which the appellant was found guilty and in terms of allegations in the indictment of which he had been acquitted by the first instance verdict, does not give rise to a violation of the appellant’s right to have his conviction or sentence reviewed by a higher tribunal. Moreover, it follows from Article 2 of Protocol No. 7 to the European Convention that the European Convention itself prescribes such restriction, i.e. exception. In this regard, the Constitutional Court holds that the fact that the Criminal Procedure Code of BiH did not provide for the possibility that the criminal verdict be reviewed in the third instance at the time when the Court of BiH, Appellate Division Panel of Section I for War Crimes, passed the challenged verdict, does not give rise to a violation of the appellant’s right guaranteed under Article 2 of Protocol No. 7 to the European Convention
• Decision on Admissibility and Merits No. AP 519/07 of 30 January 2010, paragraph 79, published in the Official Gazette of Bosnia and Herzegovina, 20/10;
• Decision on Admissibility and Merits No. AP 3620/07 of 14 April 2010, paragraph 62, published in the Official Gazette of Bosnia and Herzegovina, 50/10; war crimes
