Opposition parties in Bosnia’s Serb-dominated half are collecting lawmaker’s signatures for a special parliament session dedicated to possible wrongdoing by authorities regarding the investigation into the death of a young man earlier this year.
The death of David Dragicevic, 21, triggered mass protests. His lifeless body was found in the Vrbas river a few days after he was reported missing in mid-March.
Police in Republika Srpska (RS), one of Bosnia's two semi-autonomous entities, said Dragicevic had drowned and that the case contained no elements of a criminal offense, but then autopsies conducted by two different teams gave opposite results regarding the time of death of the young man.
The parents claim David was brutally murdered and that police is covering up the perpetrators. David’s father, Davor Dragicevic, laid out these claims in front of the RS National Assembly following a series of mass protests in the city of Banja Luka, where RS institutions are located.
According to lawmaker from the opposition Party of Democratic Progress (PDP), Adam Sukalo, the opposition is gathering the signatures of a third of the lawmakers in the RS and wants the special session to take place within the next 10 days.
“The material that we will present (to the lawmakers) is named ‘the Unconstitutional and Unlawful Actions of Individuals in the Institutions of Republika Srpska regarding the Murder of David Dragicevic’.” Sukalo said.
“This session is of utmost importance in the context of the rule of law, as it is a fact that the institutions in Republika Srpska failed in regard to the investigation in this case,” he told journalists in a press conference in Banja Luka, adding that the perpetrators of this crime have not been found for 150 days already.
According to Sukalo, the recent statement of RS President, Milorad Dodik, who mentioned that the RS Government might provide a BAM 500.000 reward to anyone who provides information leading to the capture of the true perpetrators, only shows that the RS institutions usurped as there is no legal basis for such a reward.
“Unfortunately, this case has triggered a confusion in the institutions in the RS. They (institutions) went beyond constitutional and legal solutions, which must be changed. We expect this case to be solved and this is in the interest of justice and the law,” said Nedeljko Glamocak, from the opposition Serb Democratic Party (SDS).
According to Nedjeljko Cubrilovic, the RS National Assembly speaker from the Democratic People’s Alliance (DNS) which is in a coalition with the ruling party in the entity, the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD), the National Assembly is not the right place to search for the truth about Dragicevic’s death.
“There are the Prosecutor’s Office, police, and other institutions, who have been called upon to work on this case and solve it,” Cubrilovic said.
He told reporters on Wednesday that the public and lawmakers are very interested in finding the truth so that “this can finally be marked as a solved case.”
