The murder of the two policemen is the most serious crime in Bosnia’s history, however, the problem is that our Criminal Code does not contain the crime of murder of a police officer, Director of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH) entity Police Administration told N1’s Amir Zukic.
“The investigation has been underway for six days now and all such cases remain permanently open until they are resolved. But this crime cannot be defined as the ultimate signal for the state to seriously and permanently deal with criminals,” Lukac said.
When asked why this is so, he said because things are a bit more complicated than that.
“It’s not that easy. This crime raises red flags in almost all segments of our rule of law. It tells us we have the type of criminals that require a systemic approach of all law enforcement agencies in the country.”
Police officers Adis Sehovic and Davor Vujinovic were killed in a shooting in the Sarajevo's Alipasino neighbourhood last Friday in a car theft. Sehovic immediately died and Vujinovic succumbed to severe injuries he suffered in the shooting a few hours later.
Speaking about the crime itself, the Police Administration Director noted that the crime is not only serious by the number of victims it left behind, but by the manner in which it was carried out.
“Such a crime is rarely seen. We must be aware that we’re dealing with the type of criminals who are ready to commit the most serious crimes in order to achieve their goals.” Lukac added.
He further states that the FBiH Criminal Code does not have a criminal offence called ‘murder of a policeman.’
“When it comes to the FBH Criminal Code, we must know we're a young state and a young society. The fundamental disadvantage of this existing police structure is the absence of a pyramidal structure. There is no vertical structure or vertical behaviour,” he stressed. “Not only is this true for the state level, but we also lack this at the FBiH entity level. I am the Director of the FBiH Police Administration, but I do not have the jurisdiction to order anything to cantonal police commissioners. They do not have to listen to me.”
He added that he is aware that such a police structure stems from the constitutional order of the country and the FBiH entity, but that this obviously means the Constitution must be amended.
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Bosnia and Herzegovina consists of two entities, the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH) and the Republika Srpska (RS) entity, as well as of a district called the District of Brcko. The FBiH is further subdivided into 10 cantons, with each having its own police structure. In total, Bosnia has 14 police agencies which cooperate fairly successfully but all the stakeholders say the cooperation is not as good as it should be.
When it comes to the cooperation between the FBiH Police Administration and the RS Interior Ministry, Lukac said that the 2006 Memorandum of Cooperation created a strong basis for cooperation between the two entities, but that it still has much room for improvement.
