State court judge faces criminal complaint

Oleg Čavka, a spokesman for the office, confirmed the report against the judge, but would not give additional information. He said the Ministry of the Interior of Sarajevo Canton submitted the report at the request of a plaintiff.

‘I have no comment’ the judge said.

‘The prosecution will comment.’ He added, ‘I am embarrassed because all of that.’

The charge against him, lechery, is an offense against Article 208 of the Federation Criminal Code, which covers a range of sexual offenses.

Čavka explained that ‘It is a general term and I don’t want to comment. I think that it means satisfying the bodily lust by the one who is performing the act.’

Three law enforcement officials told the Center for Investigative Reporting in Sarajevo (CIN) that the plaintiff is an 18-year-old girl who works in a flower shop.

Branko Perić, president of the High Judicial and Prosecution Council (HJPC), said, ‘I’d rather not comment” on the case.

“I heard about it,” he said. “He is a special man if he’s the man.”

Perić said such a charge could be “catastrophic for a judge.“ If convicted, Adamović could be sentenced to three months to three years in prison.

Law enforcement officials said that the judge is immune from many charges because of his position on the bench, but that immunity does not protect him from this kind of charge.

Adomović, 47 and the married father of two, has been on the state court since 2003.

According to his biography on the Court’s official website, he graduated from the Sarajevo Law School.

He has worked as a municipal, higher court and district military court judge and served on the FBiH Supreme Court. He is founder and the current vice president of the FBiH Judges’ Association and president of the commission that picks and appoints judges in FBiH.

As a president of the judges’ association, he negotiated ways of establishing the court system in BiH, which resulted, among other things, in acceptance of the Law on HJPC.