The president of the Bosnian semi-autonomous region of Republika Srpska Milorad Dodik was convicted in the final instance today for failing to comply with the decisions of the High Representative of the international community in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Christian Schmidt, Radio Free Europe reported, BTA reports.
The verdict was issued by a three-member panel, which confirmed the first-instance verdict of February 26, by which Dodik was sentenced to one year in prison and a six-year ban on holding political office.
Dodik's legal team and the Prosecutor's Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina appealed the first-instance verdict at the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, RFE/RL recalls. The prosecution requested an increase in the sentence and a ban on holding political office, while the defense requested that the sentence be overturned.
Dodik was found guilty of signing a decree promulgating a law that High Representative Christian Schmidt had previously repealed. With these laws, the legislative bodies in Republika Srpska attempted to prevent the implementation of the decisions of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the High Representative on the territory of the constituent entity.
The second defendant in the case, Miloš Lukić, acting director of the State Gazette of Republika Srpska, which published the contested laws, was acquitted in the first instance, RFE/RL recalls.
Shortly after the verdict in February, the Republika Srpska parliament adopted a set of laws that removed the jurisdiction of the state judicial and police institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina on the territory of the constituent entity, and in mid-March, the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina issued a central arrest warrant against Dodik on suspicion of attacking the constitutional order. Arrest warrants were issued on the same suspicions for Radovan Višković and Nenad Stevandić, respectively the Prime Minister of Republika Srpska and the Speaker of the Parliament of the autonomous region.
Although the central arrest warrant means that all police agencies in the country must arrest them and hand them over to the jurisdiction of the state judicial authorities, this did not happen in the following months.
In early July, Dodik voluntarily appeared before the Prosecutor's Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina, accompanied by his lawyer Goran Bubić, and the detention order was terminated, and he was ordered to periodically report to a state authority. Višković and Stevandić also voluntarily appeared in court a few days later, and their detention was also lifted.
Under the terms of the Dayton Peace Agreement, which ended the interethnic war in Bosnia (1992-1995), the country is divided into two semi-autonomous parts - the Republika Srpska, populated mainly by Bosnian Serbs, and the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (a Muslim-Croat federation), home to Bosnian Muslims (Bosniaks) and Bosnian Croats. Each part has its own government, parliament and police, but the two are linked by common state-level institutions, including a judiciary, army, security services and tax administration. The Dayton Agreement also regulates the role of the High Representative of the international community, who has broad powers, including the power to impose laws and dismiss officials.