US Supreme Court Confirms Dismissal of Lawsuit Against OHR
The US Supreme Court in Washington DC, Photo: EPA/Erik S.
The US Supreme Court has confirmed that it long ago dismissed an appeal by a Bosnian Serb for it to hear his case against the Office of the High Representative, OHR – the international body overseeing the 1995 Dayton peace deal in Bosnia.
Despite contrary information in some media outlets about his legal “victory” in the US, the US Supreme Court told BIRN that Zoran Zuza’s lawsuit against the immunity from prosecution of the OHR had been rejected almost two years ago.
“The court petition for the case you reference below, 17-1166, Zoran Zuza v. Office of the High Representative, et al., was denied on April 16, 2018”, Ashley Saunders, Public Information Specialist for the court, told BIRN on Wednesday.
Some Bosnian and regional media on Tuesday and Wednesday, quoting John Winthrop, Zuza’s lawyer, claimed that the Supreme Court had in fact agreed to consider Zuza’s lawsuit.
Russian news portal Sputnik on Tuesday quoted Zuza as saying that the alleged decision of the US Supreme Court to consider his case, is a significant “precedent” that signals that the time when OHR had any power in Bosnia “is long gone”.
Zuza has been engaged in a long-standing legal battle with the OHR, suing it before US courts for unlawful suspension of his human and political rights.
The case dates back to June 2004 when the then High Representative, Jeremy Ashdown, removed Zuza from his post in the parliament of Republika Srpska, RS, one of two autonomous entities in Bosnia.
The former journalist was sacked along with 58 other senior RS officials for failing to co-operate with The Hague war crimes tribunal, ICTY, and for assisting war-crimes suspects. He and the other officials were barred from running for office and working in public institutions.
Following the arrest of former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic in July 2008, and that of Bosnian Serb warlord Ratko Mladic in May 2011, the current OHR chief, Valentin Inzko, lifted the sanctions on Zuza and the others, saying the original reasons for the sanctions had now ceased.
However, three years later, Zuza sued the OHR, Ashdown and Inzko before the US District Court in Washington DC over his suspension.
On June 4, 2015, the US district court determined that the defendants were statutorily immune to the lawsuit under the International Organizations Immunities Act, IOIA.
The court said the IOIA generally extends immunity to an international organisation, its officers and its employees, if the United States participates in it, and if the US President has designated it as entitled to immunity through an executive order.
To extend such protection to the OHR, the US Congress in 2010 enacted legislation making the OHR immune “in the same manner, to the same extent, and subject to the same conditions” as an international organisation in which the United States participates.
In August 2016, Zuza said the Court of Appeals in Washington DC had accepted his request to hear his appeal against the violation of his fundamental human rights in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
However, the same court, on May 30 2017, said it could not rule on the matter, dismissing the case “for lack of subject matter jurisdiction”. Zuza then referred the case to the US Supreme Court in October 2017.
The OHR said it was time to consider the case closed. “The courts have recognized and upheld the immunity of the Office of the High Representative in the United States. Zuza’s lawsuit was dismissed. Three courts considered the issue of OHR immunity, the Federal District court, the Court of Appeal, and the US Supreme Court. All three courts upheld the OHR’s immunity from prosecution in the United States”, Ljiljana Radetic, OHR spokeswoman, told BIRN.
