Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik sentenced to prison for defying international official News
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Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik sentenced to prison for defying international official

The Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina on Wednesday sentenced Republika Srpska (RS) president Milorad Dodik to one year in prison, imposing a six-year ban on his political participation within the RS due to his frequent calls for Republika Srpska’s independence.

The court convicted Dodik for failure to comply with the decisions of the High Representative — the individual tasked with maintaining peace and democracy in Bosnia and Herzegovina — Christian Schmidt, finding that Dodik’s actions violated both the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Dayton Peace Agreement of 1995. The court acquitted former director of Republika Srpska’s Official Gazette, Milos Lukic.

Both Dodik and Schmidt may appeal the first-instance verdict within a two weeks, and the second-instance verdict is expected by the end of the year. The verdict will become final after the appeal process concludes. Under the Criminal Code of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Dodik may opt to pay a fine in lieu of serving prison time so long as his sentence does not exceed one year.

Dodik has characterized the trial as an attack on Republika Srpska, asserting that the case is politically motivated. He has threatened that Serbs would withdraw from state institutions, including the State Investigation and Protection Agency and the armed forces, if he were convicted. Dodik has said of the court ruling that he was, “sentenced to a year of their nonsense, their prison,” and that he has “learned to deal with bigger things,” and would deal with the trial accordingly.

The RS National Assembly passed a law in 2023 declaring that decisions by the high representative would no longer be published in the Official Gazette, despite Schmidt having annulled this law under Annex 10: Agreement on Civilian Implementation of the Dayton Peace Agreement. Dodik subsequently enacted two laws and published them in the Official Gazette in defiance of the 2023 law. In response, Schmidt amended the Criminal Code to include non-compliance with High Representative decisions as an offense.

The conviction occurs amid ongoing constitutional tensions in Bosnia, resulting from the the Dayton Accords, which divided Bosnia into two essentially independent entities — the Serb-dominated Republika Srpska and the Bosniak-Croat Federation — connected by a central government with limited authority. Approximately 100,000 people died between 1992 and 1995 in the war that erupted after Bosnia declared independence from the former Yugoslavia, resulting in what both the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) have called a genocide. The conviction takes place against the backdrop of the country’s ongoing reconstruction.

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