Yesterday, in the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), a hearing was held for the President of Republika Srpska (RS), Milorad Dodik.
Following the hearing, Dodik held a press conference in Istocno Sarajevo.
Regarding the request for the hearing of Schmidt
The first to address the public was attorney Anto Nobilo, who mentioned that they were pleasantly surprised by some of the judge’s decisions.
“The judge made several decisions that pleasantly surprised us. She is striving to maintain equality. We’ll see where that leads us in the future. It seems encouraging to me. The key document she will provide us is very important. Whether she will allow us to question Christian Schmidt is crucial. Everything has been done because of him. I would like to see him in the courtroom. He once said he is a lawyer and shouldn’t be afraid of the court. The most important part is yet to come. The judge’s decision is crucial,” said attorney Nobilo.
Attorney Goran Petronijevic mentioned that several pieces of evidence were contested due to authenticity.
“Many pieces of evidence have been contested due to authenticity. This is a kind of mixed legal system, with the prosecution and defense, and they should be different and equal sides. There is no equality here. The court will contradict us if it adopts the proposals made by the defense. We did not make proposals to delay the process, but solely purposeful ones that can prove the case. Schmidt, who considers himself a High Representative, why is it a problem for him to come? Why is Schmidt afraid of the court? What is the problem? We believe his presence would be important and would explain why he urgently changed the criminal law. These are all things he should explain. We invite him if he is not afraid, to come to the court and stand there and prove he is right,” he emphasized.
Miljkan Pucar believes that the Prosecutor’s Office of BiH lacks adequate evidence.
“Today we had the opportunity to see that the Prosecutor’s Office did what we said in the opening statement. They have nothing. When you have nothing in your hands, you create a file to confuse the judge. It is very important that she rejected Annex 10 of the Dayton Agreement as evidence. We received one document. The Prosecutor’s Office claims it was taken from the Office of the High Representative (OHR) page, and later from the United Nations (UN) page. The original Dayton Agreement does not exist in BiH. That’s the problem with the Prosecutor’s Office of BiH. Everything that is not original should not be accepted into the court file. We proposed our evidence, and after the judge’s opinion, we will address it in more detail,” he explained yesterday.
Milos Lukic said that the prosecution team, as he claims, seized the opportunity to be unserious and accused the United States (U.S.) Embassy of “orchestrating evidence.”
“I am only sure of one thing, that the prosecution team seizes every opportunity to be unserious. Pieces of evidence are forcibly introduced to give us the impression that everything is orchestrated from the outside. Orchestrated from the U.S. Embassy, I am sure of that. The U.S. sent people to the Moon 55 years ago; these prosecutors who are in court behave as if they fell from Mars. It seems to me that when this process is judged, their world will collapse,” said Lukic.
Dodik: Some documents are planted as evidence
In the end, Milorad Dodik addressed the media, reiterating his stance that this is a rigged political process.
“As time goes by, our claim is being proven. This is a rigged political process. Some documents are planted as evidence. I am not a lawyer, but I know enough to say that it is impossible for an internet page to be a credible piece of evidence. This shows what kind of country we live in. A training ground, where uneducated people come and try to impose a system by force. Maybe it’s good to go all the way, to see the farce of this process. Everything here is grotesque, there is a pompous story about extensive documentation that is neither original nor authenticated copies,” he said.
He then added:
“My right to a fair trial has been denied. Based on decisions that have no constitutional or any other legal force. Michael Murphy gathered them at a dinner and said, ‘Start immediately,’ and the best evidence of that is Pedja Kojevic. He said he would clear everything up with the court’s decision; he would decide who can proceed and who cannot. This is pressure on the court. BiH is in a serious crisis. This can only happen in underdeveloped countries, with pseudo-prosecutors, and pseudo-courts. It’s typical of colonial countries, and so is BiH. I have nothing to say about the trial process. The most interesting thing is when the judge said she would punish the prosecutor, I said please do. She said, and punish you as well. I say, yes, punish me too,” Dodik concluded.
