Tegeltija Resigns as Head of Bosnia’s Top Judicial Body

Milan Tegeltija, head of the Bosnian High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council, HJPC, the Bosnian state's top judicial institution, resigned on Thursday after coming under pressure from the public and the international community over alleged influence-peddling.

At a press conference at the Basic Court in Banja Luka, Tegeltija said he would resign as president and member of the HJCP next week at a council session because there were no basic guarantees for his security in the Bosnian capital.

He said he expected five other HJCP members to resign at the same session, and would resign from all his judicial functions because he no longer believed in the Bosnian justice system.

Tegeltija reiterated that he had received death threats and believed his life in Sarajevo was in danger, dismissing the allegations against him. "Time has shown that I had nothing to do with corrupt practices," he said.

"Since my election in 2014, attacks on me by the SDA have begun, accusing me of coming to break up the judiciary in Bosnia," Tegeltija said, referencing the mainly Bosniak Party of Democratic Action, SDA.

He claimed an intelligence and para-intelligence operation had been set up to discredit him. He accused the SDA, the strongest Bosniak party in the country, of being behind the "political-media pressure" on him.

In late-November, media released a leaked audio recording which allegedly featured Tegeltija discussing naming the sister of a former member of the HJCP as a judge in the Banja Luka Basic Court.

The conversation in the recording was allegedly between him and former HJPC member Miljana Buha who insisted on the appointment of her sister, Sanja Cegar, to the post of the judge; Tegeltija can allegedly be heard saying the "tactics...