Today, the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council (HJSC) appointed Ranko Debevac President of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) for a term of six years. This is Debevac’s second term at the head of the State Court, and he was the only candidate for this position.
At today’s appointment, he said that in his program he will focus on improving the efficiency, quality and institutional work of the Court.
“At for the cases that come to all departments of this Court, we have a relatively good situation”, said Debevec, noting that only the War Crimes Department has fewer cases due to the smaller number of indictments.
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Debevec has been in the position of President of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina since December 2016.
He was born 1964 in Sarajevo, and he graduated from the Sarajevo University Law School in 1988. He completed his internship at the Sarajevo Basic Court II. He worked in the Sarajevo Canton Prosecutor’s Office, the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and in late 2012 he was appointed a judge of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Before his judicial career, Debevec worked as an interpreter, an an adviser to the UNPROFOR and NATO missions, a legal adviser in the Commission for Real Property Claims of Displaced Persons and Refugees (CRPC). He also worked at the Hypo Bank in Sarajevo and the Attorney General’s Office of the Center Municipality.
In 2021, he was subject to a disciplinary actions. The Office of the Disciplinary Counsel (ODC) charged him because he met in private premises with Osman Mehmedbašić, the general director of the Intelligence and Security Agency of Bosnia and Herzegovina at the time when criminal proceedings were being conducted against him before the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In addition, the ODC charged Debevc for failing to declare an apartment in the financial and asset declaration report and for messages he sent to the prosecutor who was checking the allegations from the report in which his name was mentioned.
Having found him responsible for misconduct, the first-instance disciplinary commission of the HJPC imposed a public reprimand on him, but the second-instance commission absolved him of responsibility.
As the Court President, Debevc never permitted the HJPC to publish his asset declaration nor did he agree to an interview with CIN journalists on this topic.
Namely, CIN maintains a database which contains biographies, data on income, real estate, vehicles, savings, loans, shares and court proceedings for more than 40 judges and prosecutors.
Debevec owns an apartment in Sarajevo which his mother gave him in 1996. In the mortgage contract, the expert appraiser valued this property at slightly more than 330,000 BAM. His base salary in the position of President of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina is 4,400 BAM.
