BOSNIA - STATE PROSECUTOR MOVES CLOSER TO OPENING

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 SARAJEVO 000087 NOFORN SIPDIS EUR (JONES),EUR/SCE (HYLAND, FOOKS, STINCHCOMB),INL (CARROLL); NSC FOR HELGERSON; OSD FOR BEIN; DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE FOR OPDAT (ALEXANDRE) E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/16/2016 TAGS: PGOV PREL PINR PHUM KDEM KCRM KJUS BK SUBJECT: BOSNIA - STATE PROSECUTOR MOVES CLOSER TO OPENING A FORMAL INVESTIGATION INTO RS CORRUPTION AND POSSIBLY DODIK REF: 08 SARAJEVO 1803 AND PRIOR Classified By: Ambassador Charles English. Reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). ¶1. (C) SUMMARY: The State Prosecutor's Office is close to completing its review of the Republika Srpska (RS) government documents provided to it as part of its preliminary investigation into alleged corruption associated with RS Government Building contracts. Based on their preliminary conclusions about the documents' content, our contacts anticipate that the State Investigation and Protection Agency will soon file a formal criminal report, perhaps within a week, that would provide for the opening of a formal investigation. The investigation could target RS PM Milorad Dodik, but would almost certainly target individuals close to him. This information would not be made public, but it will likely leak. In the meantime, the Constitutional Court may consider at the end of January a case filed by RS parliamentarians challenging a provision in state law that provides the State Prosecutor's Office with one basis, though not the only basis, for its jurisdictional claim over the matter. As all this unfolds, we expect Dodik and his allies to intensify their attacks on the state and efforts to portray the investigation into RS corruption as a deliberate attempt by the international community and Bosniaks to destroy the RS and persecute Serbs. END SUMMARY From Pre-Investigative to Investigative Phase on Dodik -------------- -------------- ¶2. (C) Contacts at the State Prosecutor's Office have told us that the Office is preparing to shift from the pre-investigative to investigative phase with regard to the alleged corruption associated with RS Government Building contracts. They said both the Office and the State Investigative and Protective Agency (SIPA) are conducting separate reviews of the documents submitted by the RS government in November 2008, but the Office's preliminary assessment is that there is sufficient evidence to open a formal investigation. With this in mind, the State Prosecutor's Office had directed SIPA to file a criminal report. The filing of a criminal report would authorize the 
State Prosecutor's Office to launch a formal investigation, which may include Dodik, but would almost certainly include close associates. We understand that the SIPA report, which does not have to include the names of suspects, could be filed as early as the week of January 26. The State Prosecutor's Office will then have six months to prepare an indictment, but could extend this period if needed. ¶3. (C) Our contacts reiterated to us that the State Prosecutor's Office would continue to proceed deliberately in its handling of the matter. The Office's immediate concerns, we were told, centered around: 1) the RS' failure to submit fifteen items that the Office had requested; 2) the possibility that SIPA, under the leadership of Director Mirko Lujic, an ethnic Serb, could drag its feet in preparing the criminal report; and, 3) the possibility that Dragan Lukac, the head of the Criminal Investigation Unit, who has a penchant for sharing sensitive information with the press, may leak details about this case. (Note: It is unclear whether the State Prosecutor's Office will request the missing 15 documents as part of its ongoing preliminary investigation or wait to request them until the opening of a formal investigation. End Note) RS Officials Pursue Constitutional Court Challenge -------------- -------------- ¶4. (U) While the State Prosecutor's Office is continuing with its pre-investigation, it is also closely monitoring an RS challenge before the BiH Constitutional Court to Article 13 of the Law on the State Court, which is one of the bases for the jurisdiction of the State Prosecutor's Office on the matter. Article 13 lays out the types of cases in which the State Court has jurisdiction; this includes cases in which there are violations of entity criminal codes that have serious or detrimental effects over the country's economy. The constitutional challenge was filed by Milorad Zivkovic, who is the state House of Representatives Deputy Speaker and SARAJEVO 00000087 002 OF 002 a member of RS PM Dodik's party, and by other RS parliamentarians. Zivkovic had asked the Constitutional Court to review Article 13 and to grant a temporary interim measure suspending the provision. The week of January 5, the Constitutional Court published its November 17, 2008 decision denying the request for an interim measure. The Constitutional Court plans to review the merits and/or admissibility of the case on January 30. ¶5. (C/NF) From the beginning, the RS government has maintained that the alleged corruption involves a violation of the RS, not the state's, Criminal Code, and as a result the RS, not the state, has jurisdiction over the matter, and that the State Prosecutor's Office cannot invoke Article 13 in order to pursue the matter. However, our contacts told us that, unbeknownst to the RS government, the pre-investigation by the State Prosecutor's Office is based not only on the State Court's jurisdiction over economic and financial crimes that may have detrimental effects over the country as a whole but also on alleged violations of the state-level Law on Procurement. The state procurement law is applicable nation-wide to all government offices and public companies, and the State Prosecutor's Office would be able to pursue the matter on these grounds whatever the Constitutional Court's decision on Article 13. Broader Implications for Combating Corruption -------------- - ¶6. (C/NF) Nonetheless, the State Prosecutor's Office and other independent legal experts were heartened by the Constitutional Court's decision concerning the interim measure. They remain concerned about the possible impact of an unfavorable decision by the Court in the final ruling, however. They are also concerned about the possible impact of the Court's upcoming decision in the corruption case against top Herzegovina-Neretva Canton (HNC) officials on the State Prosecutor's pre-investigation of alleged RS corruption. As reported previously, the BiH Constitutional Court, in an unprecedented move, halted the HNC officials' first instance trial after the officials challenged the State Court's jurisdiction in the case. The BiH Constitutional Court intends to review the HNC case, which is being closely monitored by the RS government, at month's end. Comment -------------- ¶7. (C/NF) With the string of Bosnian religious and New Years holidays behind us, the political pace here will pick-up in the coming weeks. The investigation into alleged corruption by RS government officials, including Dodik, by the State Prosecutor's Office is no exception. Though decisions concerning the investigation are not made public, we expect they will be leaked to the press. At a minimum, we expect Dodik to be made aware of them by sympathetic Bosnian Serbs employed in state-level law enforcement and judicial institutions. With this in mind, we should expect Dodik and his allies to intensify their attacks on the state and efforts to portray the investigation into RS corruption as a deliberate attempt by the international community and Bosniaks to destroy the RS and persecute Serbs. ¶8. (C/NF) We will also keep a close eye on the Constitutional Court's rulings. The Constitutional Court often keeps its decisions close-hold, releasing them only weeks or months after making them, so even if it acts on January 30, we may not be immediately aware of the outcome. Apart from the potential case against Dodik, decisions by the Constitutional Court against the State Prosecutor's Office in both the Article 13 and HNC cases would have a profound impact on state-level judicial institutions' ability to combat serious organized crime and corruption -- issues that have been largely ignored by entity-level courts. Such an outcome would deal a considerable blow to international community efforts to combat corruption and break the long-standing nexus between corruption and nationalism. ENGLISH