The Head of the institution which monitors Bosnia's judiciary, Milan Tegeltija, used a mediator to allegedly find clients and trade in the speeding up of their cases before the country's judicial institutions, Bosnian investigative outlet Zurnal wrote on Tuesday.

According to the Zurnal web portal, an officer called Marko Pandza, from the State Investigation and Protection Agency – Bosnia's special police, took the money on Tegeltija's behalf. The portal wrote that Pandza took some €1,000 from a man who was tried so that Tegeltija could speed-up the investigation.

Immediately upon the publication of the text, the Head of the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council (HJPC), which appoints judges and prosecutors and disciplines them, Milan Tegeltija published a public statement saying Zurnal's text is a “complete fabrication and a malicious lie that he was caught in any form of corruptive activity simply because he never took part in any such activity in his life, let alone the said case.”

“It's a malicious construct aimed at discrediting me,” Tegeltija wrote.

But Bosnia's Security Minister had some other things to say:

“Milan, for your own sake and the sake of Bosnian citizens, especially for the sake of this country's judiciary – resign,” Dragan Mektic said.

“I've been saying that the judiciary and Bosnia's judicial system is responsible for the country's demise and stagnation, for the past four years. The judiciary has fallen into the hands of political elites, politics is dominating and manipulating it, and its all the fault of bearers of highest judicial functions,” Mektic said for N1.

“President Milan Tegeltija, you're not telling the truth, you're manipulating with people, lying and what you said in your statement was not true. Have some responsibility and admit what happened and resign from that function,” he added.

The Head of the HJPC said, in his statement, he would sue the Zurnal portal for slander before the competent court.