Following significant support from EU-funded projects and Switzerland, the first video hearing of a witness residing abroad has been held at a Cantonal court in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The main trial in the war crime case 07 0 K 011492 14 K – Ramo Žilić et al was held at the Cantonal Court in Mostar on April 28th 2015. On that occasion, two prosecution witnesses who currently reside in Sweden were questioned. During the trial, witnesses provided their testimony via video link from a courtroom in Linköping District Court.
The High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council of Bosnia and Herzegovina implemented two EU-funded projects in the BiH judiciary (IPA 2009 and IPA 2010) which have resulted in establishing of the video-conferencing system in courts throughout BiH judiciary. The system allows for witness hearings from remote locations through the video link, during the main trial. Initially, the video-conferencing system connected 28 institutions in the BiH judiciary. During 2014, the system was upgraded and expanded to include seven additional prosecutors’ offices through the support of the Swiss-funded prosecutorial capacity building project. In early 2015, the general technical preconditions for establishing the video link with judicial institutions abroad were fulfilled, which enabled the conducting of hearings of witnesses who reside outside of BiH in cases processed by courts in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in accordance with international legal aid procedures.
The use of the video-conferencing system is contributing to more efficient and cost-effective court proceedings, while raising the efficiency and quality in application of witness protection measures in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The European Union is the largest donor to the justice sector in BiH. Over 50 million euros of support have been provided over the past 10 years in order to enhance the efficiency, effectiveness and transparency of courts and prosecutor offices throughout the country.
