Chairman of Bosnia's High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council (HJPC) Milan Tegeltija told N1 that the video published by investigative news outlet Zurnal.info, alleging that he was involved in a corruption affair, was cropped in three parts and that the recording does not fully describe the events that put him in the spotlight.

Last week, Zurnal.info published an article and a secretly recorded video, showing Tegeltija, businessman Nermin Alesevic and state police officer Marko Pandza, who acted as a middleman in the meeting.

The video appears to be showing Alesevic handing the money to Pandza but does not contain footage of Tegeltija taking it over. Tegeltija cannot be heard asking for any money directly. He can only be heard asking for the case number and the name of the prosecutor.

The HJPC Chairman dismissed all the allegations.

Speaking for N1, Tegeltija said the video was cut in three stages, where he appears only in the second one, which triggers a question if his liability exists at all.

“The recording published on Zurnal.info is my strongest argument,” he stressed.

According to him, there was nothing unusual or wrong to meet a citizen and hear his complaints. However, he stressed, he never showed in this or any other case that he was biased.

As the Council Chairman, Tegeltija said, it was his duty to take care that the institutions function efficiently and thus his communication with anyone and in any situation was allowed.

“Anything I hear in private life and which concerns my job I instruct it to be institutionalised, and that's the only right thing to do,” he said.

Prosecutors opened a case to investigate the allegations and Security Mektic invited citizens for a mass gathering in front of the HJPC headquarters, to pressure Tegeltija and other Council members to resign.

Asked if he was summoned for interrogation, he said he could not wait for that to happen.

“Since this corruption frame-up has failed – the ones who created it have understood that, there is an attempt to provoke my moral, disciplinary liability based on my inappropriate influence on a case or inappropriate communication with a party,” said Tegeltija.