It is not necessary to examine separately whether the challenged rulings of the Constitutional Court of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina violated the principle of prohibition of retroactive application of the law, particularly when bearing in mind that the Constitutional Court, in its Decision no. U 24/03 of 22 September 2004, established that the provisions of the Law on Immunity of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Law on Immunity of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina are in compliance with the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina and that they do not have retroactive effect prohibited by Article 7 of the European Convention.
• Decision on Admissibility and Merits No. AP 58/03 of 29 October 2004, paragraph 45, published in the Official Gazette of Bosnia and Herzegovina, 11/05; immunities
The Constitutional Court concludes that there is a violation of Article 7(1) of the European Convention, on the ground that there is a realistic possibility in the present case that the retroactive application of the BiH Criminal Code was to the detriment of the appellant in respect of the sentencing, which is contrary to Article 7(1) of the European Convention, irrespective of the fact that, given the prescribed range of the prison term, this does not mean that the appellant would have received a lower imprisonment sentence had the SFRY Criminal Code been applied in his case. Namely, it is of crucial importance that the appellant could have received a lower sentence had this Code been applied.
• Decision on Admissibility and Merits No. AP 325/08 of 27 September 2013, paragraph 54, published in the Official Gazette of Bosnia and Herzegovina, 80/13; war crime; change of the case-law applied in the case no. AP 1785/06
The Constitutional Court concludes that also in respect of the criminal offence War Crimes Against Civilians under Article 173 of the Criminal Code of BiH, for which the appellant was declared guilty under paragraph 3 of the challenged judgment, the violation of Article 7(1) of the European Convention has not occurred, i.e. by the retroactive application of the Criminal Code of BiH, although this criminal offence at the time of the perpetration thereof had been regulated as a criminal offence under the Criminal Code of SFRY, as in the appellant’s case there exists no realistic possibility that the retroactive application of the Criminal Code of BiH would be to the appellant’s detriment as regards the determination of punishment, since, even if the Criminal Code of SFRY was applied to this criminal offence, the appellant could not have been sentenced to the more lenient punishment as he was sentenced for the concurrence of criminal offences to long-term imprisonment of 28 years and that that penalty, under the relevant provisions of the Criminal Code of BiH applied at the time of the adoption of the challenged judgments, absorbed the prison sentence of 10 years, which was imposed on the appellant for the criminal offence of war crimes against civilians. Therefore, one cannot say that the appellant has not been secured an effective protection relative to the imposing of the higher sentence.
• Decision on Admissibility and Merits No. AP 2789/08 of 28 March 2013, paragraph 71, published in the Official Gazette of Bosnia and Herzegovina, 42/14; war crime
Considering that under the challenged verdict of the Court of BiH, the appellant was sentenced for the criminal offense of which he was found guilty in accordance with the CC of the SFRY, which was applicable at the time of the commission of the relevant criminal offense and considering that the law could not be partially applied, the Constitutional Court could not accept the appellant’s claim as well-founded that the sentence of 20 years imprisonment, in accordance with the CC of the SFRY as a more lenient law, was more severe than the sentence of 29 years of imprisonment imposed on him in accordance with the CC of BiH in the course of the pre-trial proceedings.
• Decision on Admissibility and Merits No. AP 875/14 of 15 February 2017, paragraph 74, published in the Official Gazette of Bosnia and Herzegovina, 19/17; criminal proceedings, war crime; proceedings that followed the Constitutional Court’s quashing of the decision of the Court of BiH and remitting the case for retrial; there is no violation of Article 7 of the European Convention
