Long delays in the judicial follow-up in the cases of David Dragicevic and Dzenan Memic are unacceptable, and the European Union (EU) expects them to be fully investigated and processed, EU's outgoing Enlargement Commissioner Johannes Hahn said on Tuesday.
“One and a half year ago David Dragicevic went missing and was found dead one week later. Dzenan Memic died over three and a half years ago,” Hahn tweeted.
“The long delays in the judicial follow-up of these and similar cases are unacceptable! EU expects such cases to be duly investigated and processed,” he added.
21-year-old David Dragicevic went missing in March 2018 and his lifeless body was found a few days later in a local river in his home-town, the northern city of Banja Luka.
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Police initially said the death was a result of drowning but his family claimed Dragicevic was brutally murdered and that authorities in the Serb-majority part of the country were covering it up to protect the perpetrators.
Following the numerous protests and pressure by family and their supporters gathered in the ‘Justice for David’ group, the judicial institutions assessed the young man's death was a murder.
The family of Dzenan Memic, also a 21-year-old who died under still unresolved circumstances in 2016, believes he was murdered and that competent judicial institutions in Sarajevo are covering it up.
The foreign institutions in Bosnia have reiterated on several occasions their full support to both families in seeking justice and have urged the institutions to solve the cases.
To date, the perpetrators in both cases have not been found.
