President of the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council (HJPC) of BiH Milan Tegeltija has said that he will resign next week as there are no safety and institutional guarantees for performing his duties in Sarajevo and due to constant illegal intelligence activities aimed at removing him from office.
“Next week, after a session of the HJPC, I will resign from the office of president and member of the HJPC, and this is my final decision,” said Tegeltija at a press conference at the Banjaluka Magistrate Court.
He has said that he has no trust anymore in the HJPC as he disagrees with its way of operations and with the fact that some members of the Council succumbed to pressures.
Regarding that which he encountered while holding the office of president of the HJPC, Tegeltija has said that many people close to the SDA worked constantly to discredit him politically and in the media, and saying that he worked to destroy the judiciary in BiH, which, he says, is not true.
He has said that illegal intelligence, para-intelligence and other activities were conducted against him with a view to portraying him as being dishonest, immoral, corrupt and a criminal, as someone who is destroying BiH and who should be removed from office and punished.
Tegeltija says he did not succumb to such pressures, including pressures from the SDA and its president Bakir Izetbegović and even some representatives of the International Community, noting that he was doing his job professionally.
He has said that some worked constantly to eliminate him with a view to taking full control over the judicial system.
Tegeltija has said that these illegal activities jeopardized his safety and that unfortunately, institutions failed to provide him with protection.
The HJPC held an extraordinary session last week to deal with the disputed audio recording of a conversation between Tegeltija and former HJPC member Milijana Buha, which was published in the media, about the appointment of her sister to one of the judicial offices.
Three conclusions were adopted at the session, one of them asking Tegetlija to consider resigning from office.
Tegeltija denied media reports, claiming that the recording was illegal, not authentic and rigged.
In his earlier statements, Tegeltija said that intelligence and para-intelligence agencies close to the SDA are behind attacks on him and the publishing of the disputed recording, as well as that illegal intelligence and para-intelligence activities, could result in his assassination.
He has said that working conditions at the level of BiH are becoming impossible for HJPC members from the Republic of Srpska as they do not provide conditions for any professional to honorably and legally do their job.
Source: SRNA