Name of Nina Ratkušić, judge of the Municipal Court in Mostar,is quite familiar to the B&H public. She is one of the few holders of the judicial office who dared to speak publicly and in the media about the pressures and mobbing to which she was exposed in her workplace by her superiors, specifically from then, and now dismissed, President of the Court Divna Bošnjak.

She trusted the State Prosecutor's Office

Only because she decided to oppose, that is, persistently reject the verbal orders that "arrived" from the president and stubbornly defend her position, Ratkušić "earned" reports, which, as she claims, were false, and in the end, the whole thing resulted in disciplinary proceedings.

According to the report filed by Bošnjak, disciplinary proceedings were conducted against Ratkušić for disciplinary offenses of conduct in or outside the Court that harms the reputation of the judicial office, as the first point, and for negligence in the performance of official duties.

When disciplinary proceedings were initiated against her, Ratkušić, as she tells us, placed great faith in the State Prosecutor's Office. But she experienced "how things go" on her own.

- The lawsuit against me contained two counts, one related to the fact that I verbally attacked Divna Bošnjak and, as evidence, the Prosecution submitted a video, which I never managed to open. We even examined it twice and both times the expert said that it could not be opened because it was done in Photoshop, an image editing program, so we were unable to prepare the defense.

However, the Council ignored this! They released that video, which shows me standing alone, where you can't see where I'm going and where you can't tell in which part of the building I'm in. That was their key proof that I attacked Divna Bošnjak. This was the key evidence of the Prosecution, ie Alena Kurspahić-Nadarević, who is in charge of the proceedings, and in the first count, due to misconduct, they initially convicted me of reducing my salary by 25 percent during six months, which, by the decision of the Second Instance Disciplinary Commission, they changed to a public reprimand about 15 days ago - Ratkušić tells us.

She emphasizes in particular that during the proceedings, the statements of two key Prosecution witnesses were contradictory.

- So, there is no evidence at all, because the video shows nothing and the statements of the witnesses are contradictory, but they continue with the lawsuit. My defense has now filed an appeal - she states.

Verbal order

She states that there have been charges against her before, which were rejected, and when that did not "work", the former president, as she says, gives a verbal order to a judge to pass over one multimillion case to her.

- I did not take that subject officially, but it was passed on to me by some magic - states Ratkušić.

Regarding that subject, as she says, articles were published on certain portals with her and a photo of Alena Kurpsahić-Nadarević, in which the two of them are placed in the same context.

After Kurspahić, Ratkušić explains, was publicly called out, the Office of the Disciplinary Prosecutor filed a lawsuit against her for negligence in the performance of official duties, ie for not resolving the subject of execution, which is urgent.

According to Ratkušić, she was never told whether there was a report of the party against her, whether they acted ex officio on the basis of articles or any other procedure.

- They never told me on what basis they initiated the procedure, and I addressed them with such a request on three occasions. This was important to me because, if a party reported me, then I had to be excluded from those cases. So, Alena Kurspahić and Alma Hasanović never answered me - says Ratkušić.

She explains that this is a really complex case, which involved two large business entities in Herzegovina, and that numerous illegalities were committed through the procedure, including the fact that, as she claims, expert associate Vladislav Lukić, after published articles on one portal about keeping the item in a drawer, tried to delete the documentation from the CMS. Fortunately, she says, the ICT officer did not allow him to do so, so she submitted evidence to the State Prosecutor's Office.

- We have pointed out and emphasized the principle of officiality, ie that the Prosecutor's Office, upon learning of the acts, is obliged to initiate an investigation against certain persons. Alma Hasanović then said that proceedings would indeed be initiated and she looked very interested. However, other disciplinary proceedings had to result from my disciplinary proceedings, if nothing else,the investigation and criminal proceedings against Divna Bošnjak.

Alena Kurspahić-Nadarević, as the managing prosecutor, had to do that, because my disciplinary proceedings showed who was acting in the case, what was being done, that it went beyond the scope of real jurisdiction, that an attempt was made to delete documentation that ICT did not allowed, therefore, these are serious disciplinary offenses. But she did not initiate disciplinary proceedings and now that expert associate, imagine that, is competing for a judge - warns Ratkušić.

Personal interests

All these facts with evidence, as she states, were published in other media as well. It was Ratkušić who resorted to media appearances when she saw that, as she points out, the system and the State Prosecutor's Office were failing, even though she was asked to trust them.

-Imagine how the State Prosecutor's Office and Alena Kurspahić-Nadarević perform, and they have no previous judicial experience. In order for disciplinary prosecutors to know how to conduct a disciplinary offense, they must be veterans in the judiciary.

There is no doubt that Alena Kurspahić has certain spheres of interest to selectively initiate proceedings and investigations. The biggest problem is their conduct ex officio, where they terminate the investigation without any explanation to the injured party, and conduct an investigation against someone and mount evidence. It is my great happiness that I am represented by a family member, believe me, if anyone else would have given up on this. And that is the biggest problem that in State Prosecutor's Office they are guided by personal interests, and not by professional and moral ethics. We saw what colleague Ifet Feraget said, and what Mr. Nesad Džaferović said about the death of his father.

Until a few years ago, I would not have believed it if I had not experienced it on my own, that disciplinary proceedings are conducted selectively, and that the Council is not a corrective factor. I sincerely hope that the new convocation of the HJPC will put an end to that and that it will make the right moves so that this does not happen again - says Nina Ratkušić.

She also says that if the complaint she filed is not accepted, because the public reprimand issued to her is unfavorable for her, since, as she claims, she did nothing, she will go to the Constitutional Court, and then, if necessary, to the Court in Strasbourg.

Supplement to the 2016 application in a case that was formed two years later!?

- To make matters worse, on one occasion, at one hearing, Alma Hasanović submitted an amendment to the application dating from 2016, two years before the case in which I was accused was formed at all! So that case did not exist, and she submits that supplement to the application, where the names of five other judges stand. My name is not there, and no investigation was conducted against those judges, let alone the charged - says Ratkušić.

She sent three requests, but she was not granted

- It is an interesting thing that only I have a master's degree and I am in the phase of writing a doctoral thesis. Both master's and doctoral degrees relate to civil law, ie litigation, damages and family law. I was assigned to the Executive Department. The unwritten rule is that when a place is opened for a misdemeanor or litigation, the one who is the last to be executed, that is, the one who came first and wants to cross, is allowed to do so.

I sent three requests, I was not approved, and three judges who came after me were appointed. So, my status is not promising, and only one thing changed after my media appearance. No more illegal actions are explicitly requested and the relationship is more formal, that is, the CMS system and e-mail are used more, as official correspondence, and not popularly "Here I am to tell you what to do" - says Ratkušić.