“The latest attack and ultimatum of the president of the BiH entity Republika Srpska Milorad Dodik to the Constitutional Court of BiH represents an escalation of his continuous legal violence and anti-Dayton activities. There is an open attack on the integrity and constitutional order of the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is punishable under the Criminal Code of BiH,” Denis Bećirović, a member of the BiH Presidency, warned today.
Bećirović calls on the high representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina to finally sanction Milorad Dodik for his continuous anti-Dayton and anti-constitutional activities which, as he states, may have far-reaching and very serious consequences, not only for the democratic development of Bosnia and Herzegovina, but also for the peace process in Bosnia and Herzegovina and beyond.
He calls on the high representative in BiH to publicly answer “whether he is operating on the territory of the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina or whether he is the high representative for the entity of the Federation of BiH”.
Bećirović also calls on the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina to raise the issue of criminal responsibility of Milorad Dodik for committing a criminal offense against the integrity of Bosnia and Herzegovina, i.e. an attack on the constitutional order from Article 156 of the Criminal Code of Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as for committing a criminal offense against the judiciary from Article 239 of the same Law.
“I call on the European Union to urgently impose sanctions on Milorad Dodik and his organized group for destroying the Dayton Peace Agreement and the Constitution of BiH. It is high time that the EU joins the sanctions that were justifiably introduced by the United States of America and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The EU needs specific to show whether it is a witness to the Dayton Peace Agreement or whether individual EU states have become silent accomplices in the anti-Dayton project to destroy the internationally recognized state of Bosnia and Herzegovina,” Bećirović believes.
He believes that the “unrecorded pressures initiated, designed and led by the president of the BiH entity RS Milorad Dodik and his followers in the RS, and the forcing of the withdrawal of judge Zlatko Knežević from the Constitutional Court of BiH before the end of his mandate in accordance with the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as the non-appointment of the missing judges of the Constitutional Court from the BiH entity RS, represents a dangerous anti-Dayton, anti-constitutional and illegal plan to block the Constitutional Court of BiH as the guardian of the Constitution and an attack on democratic development and the rule of law in Bosnia and Herzegovina”.
Bećirović reminds that the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina is a state institution established by Article VI. of the Constitution of BiH as an independent guardian of the Constitution and as an institutional guarantor for the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms established by the Constitution of BiH and the instruments of Annex I of the Constitution of BiH.
The Constitutional Court of BiH, Bećirović further reminds, based on the authority derived from the Constitution of BiH itself, on the basis of Article VI/2.b) of the Constitution of BiH, adopted the Rules of the Constitutional Court of BiH published in the “Official Gazette of BiH” number: 94/14, which regulate the proceedings before the court, its organization, sessions of the Constitutional Court, decisions and other acts and decision-making, rights and duties of the Constitutional Court and all other issues related to the work of the Constitutional Court.
“Amendments to Article 42 of the Rules of the Constitutional Court of BiH adopted by this court, which prevent blockages and enable the work of the Court itself, are within the competence of the Constitutional Court of BiH, which is not part of the legislative, executive, or regular judicial power, but is positioned by the Constitution of BiH as a separate independent and independent power, which, based on that Constitution, acts as a corrective factor for the other three segments of power, and such decisions of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina are not subject to corrections or review by any other government in Bosnia and Herzegovina,” said Bećirović.
