Expressing his outrage at the ruling, Tomasevic said that the Sarajevo Archdiocese had become yet another victim of the unjust law which gives preference to tenancy rights over ownership rights. The building was constructed by the archdiocese for its needs, but a part of it was expropriated by the Communist authorities and allocated as a flat to the family of Fadil Smajlovic.
Tomasevic said that despite many promises, the state authorities had not yet passed a law on the restitution of property to religious communities which had been unjustly expropriated during Communist rule.
The flat given to Fadil Smajlovic was not nationalised but only allocated to him. To make things worse, the flat was used by Fadil Smajlovic to listen in to what was going on in the Archbishop's residence. The surveillance equipment was found in the flat after Smajlovic left the flat following the outbreak of hostilities in Sarajevo in 1992.
After Smajlovic's departure, Cardinal Vinko Puljic and his aides began again using that part of the archbishop's residence. The family of Fadil Smajlovic, who had died in the meantime, has filed a court claim seeking back the flat under tenancy rights law.