STATEMENT FOR PUBLIC
on the occasion of trial to the journalist Senad Pecanin

 

On the basis of the information obtained by the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Bosnia and Herzegovina, all rights understood by fair trial were not respected during the legal proceedings to a journalist Senad Pecanin at the Court of First Instance in Sarajevo. Pecanin’s proposal for hearing a number of his witnesses was rejected in spite of his right to have his witnesses as the accused person on the basis of the European Convention on Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. The Helsinki Committee deems that even the Law on Criminal proceedings in BH was disregarded, that is, the basic principles of criminal proceedings that come out from the positive regulations in BH have been violated.

Since the proclaimed sentence is the first instance sentence and is not effective, the Helsinki Committee has taken the obligation to follow up the further course of proceedings and to, if need be, publicly intervene in case of violations of right to fair trial.


Sarajevo, 2 February, 1998
No. 04A-02/98