The final hearing in the trial of Milorad Dodik, the president of the entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Republika Srpska (RS), will be held at the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina on Wednesday, February 19.
Along with Dodik, Miloš Lukić, the acting director of the entity's Official Gazette, is also being tried in the same case. They are accused of disrespecting the decisions of the High Representative, Christian Schmidt, and risk being sentenced to up to five years in prison and banned from political activity.
Dodik is accused of signing presidential decrees, by which he declared two unconstitutional laws of Republika Srpska, which had previously been annulled by the High Representative, valid. Lukić is accused of publishing these laws and decrees, which stipulate that the decisions of the High Representative and the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina will not be implemented in that entity.
There is an increased presence of police forces from the Sarajevo Canton Ministry of Interior in front of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina building. Dodik's supporters have also gathered there.
As a year-long trial awaits its conclusion, pressure on the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina is mounting.
On the one hand, the RS leadership threatens with "radical decisions" and the abandonment of all Bosnia and Herzegovina institutions if Dodik is convicted.
Pressure is also being exerted by representatives of the authorities of neighboring Serbia, as well as Hungary.
Thus, the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, declared in Budapest on February 17 that he hopes that "in Bosnia and Herzegovina no judicial decisions will be made that could endanger stability."
Two days before the last session, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban also called for a "stop to punishing Dodik," who, along with the entire RS leadership, is under sanctions by the United States and the European Union for corruption and undermining Bosnia and Herzegovina.
What led to this trial?
At the sessions of the RS Assembly in June 2023, unconstitutional laws were adopted that provided that the legal acts of the High Representative would not be published in the Official Gazette of the RS and that the decisions of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which according to the Constitution of this state are final and binding, would not be implemented in the territory of this entity.
The High Representative, Christian Schmidt, repealed these two entity laws on 1 July 2023 through his Bonn powers and amended the Criminal Code of Bosnia and Herzegovina, making it a criminal offence to fail to implement the High Representative's decisions.
On 7 July 2023, Dodik signed the decrees declaring these laws valid, and they were published in the Official Gazette of the Republic of Srpska. The Prosecutor's Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina filed an indictment against Dodik and Lukić on 11 August, and the court confirmed it on 11 September./ REL (A2 Televizion)
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MUND TE LEXONI GJITHASHTU
