Bosnian Prosecution refused to publish their indictment against former state Security Minister Dragan Mektic, international corruption watchdog Transparency International (TI) said Wednesday after the Prosecution denied their request see the indictment.

Due to great public interest and the indictment confirmation process, the TI BiH asked that the Prosecution send them indictment against Dragan Mektic and others.

“After examining the public interest as prescribed by Article 9 of the Freedom of Information Act, it was determined that the publication of the said information is not in the interest of the public,” the Prosecution said, adding that it would “significantly harm their legitimate goals of preventing and discovering crime.”

The corruption watchdog has been following the case within their corruption monitoring operation in the country, adding that “this was the first time the Prosecution failed to provide them with a copy of an indictment ever since they started the monitoring”

TI BiH said the Prosecution relied on similar arguments earlier when they rejected their requests to provide information from completed court proceedings, or information on whether an indictment was filed in the “Bosnalijek” case.

In both cases, the Court ruled in favour of the watchdog, saying that “the Prosecution failed to implement the public interest test properly and that as a rule of thumb, the information on criminal proceedings are of public interest and the judiciary is obliged to provide such information in case of a legally valid reason justifying the public interest,” TI said.

Despite the established judicial practice, TI BiH said, the Prosecution continues to deny all information on criminal proceedings despite the public interest.