MITRANIĆ v. BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA
Inadmissible
Ineta Ziemele;Ledi Bianku;Päivi Hirvelä;Paul Mahoney;Robert Spano;Vincent A. De Gaetano
1. The applicant, Mr Ljubinko Mitranić, is a citizen of Bosnia and Herzegovina, who was born in 1936 and lives in Banja Luka. He was represented before the Court by Mr S. Ivetić, a lawyer practising in Banja Luka. 2. The facts of the case, as submitted by the applicant, may be summarised as follows. 3. On 13 April 1992 the applicant’s brother, Vladimir Mitranić, was killed in his house in Livno together with his friend K.P. 4. On 14 April 1992 the investigating judge of the then Livno First Instance Court conducted an on-site investigation in the presence of criminal and medical experts and two police officers. Some members of the family were also present. 5. It would appear that no other procedural steps were taken thereafter. 6. On 17 June 1995 the applicant wrote to the Livno Cantonal Prosecutor, to the Livno Cantonal Court, to the Cantonal Ministry of Interior and to the International Police Task Forces (IPTF) in Bosnia and Herzegovina, enquiring whether the perpetrators had been identified or arrested. It would appear that he received no answer. 7. On 5 December 2005 the applicant lodged a constitutional appeal complaining about the lack of an effective investigation into the killing of his brother. On 14 March 2006 the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina (“the Constitutional Court”) joined the applicant’s case to 35 other similar cases (some of which concerned missing persons and others, like the applicant’s, war time killings) and found a violation of Articles 3 and 8 of the Convention. It ordered the competent authorities to conduct effective investigations into the relevant disappearances and murders without delay and to inform the relatives of the results (decision no. AP-1248/05). 8. On 5 February and 22 October 2007 the applicant informed the Constitutional Court that, following its decision of 14 March 2006, no procedural steps had been taken with a view to investigate his brother’s murder. 9. On 23 May 2007 the Constitutional Court adopted a procedural decision (a decision which merely acknowledges the fact of non-enforcement and which is transferred to the State Prosecutor for further, if any, action), to the effect that its decision of 14 March 2006 had not been fully enforced as regards, in particular, the applicant’s and several other cases. 10. On 19 February 2008, following the applicant’s enquiry, the Livno Cantonal Prosecutor informed him that the case file (the photographs taken at the crime scene, the record of the on-site investigation and other material gathered during the on-site investigation) had been transferred to the State Prosecutor because the case concerned a war crime. It is not clear when the transfer took place. 11. On 11 June 2008 the applicant was invited to provide information concerning war crimes committed in the territory of the Livno municipality to the State Prosecutor on 23 June 2008. 12. On 1 July 2008, following the applicant’s enquiry, the State Prosecutor informed him that all the necessary steps were being taken with a view to discovering those involved in the murder of his brother. 13. The 2003 Criminal Code (Official Gazette of Bosnia and Herzegovina nos. 3/03, 37/03, 32/03, 54/04, 61/04, 30/05, 53/06, 55/06 32/07 and 8/10) entered into force on 1 March 2003. The relevant part of Article 173 of the Code provides as follows: “ 1. Whoever in violation of rules of international law in time of war, armed conflict or occupation, orders or perpetrates any of the following acts: a) Attack on civilian population, settlement, individual civilians or persons unable to fight, which results in the death, grave bodily injuries or serious damaging of people’s health ; ... b) Killings... ... shall be punished by imprisonment for a term not less than ten years or by long-term imprisonment”.