Milorad Dodik, president of the Republika Srpska entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Sarajevo did not plead guilty stating that he did not understand the indictment.
The indictment filed by the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina charges Dodik and Miloš Lukić, acting director of the Official Gazette of the RS, with disobeying the decisions of the High Representative of the International Community in Bosnia and Herzegovina (OHR). Lukic also said that he did not understand the indictment.
Dodik claims that a purely political process was launched against him without any legal basis, in which they want to deal with the RS and with him as president, stressing that the Prosecutor’s Office of BiH is illegal because “nowhere in the Constitution of BiH does it say that BiH has a court and a prosecutor’s office.
“I can’t believe that the Prosecutor’s Office and the Court, based in this way, have lawyers who ignore the fact that the Constitution of BiH states that the only legislative activity in BiH is carried out by the Parliamentary Assembly and no one else, and it is impossible for them to accept that a foreigner who is unauthorized, who was not appointed by the Council security of the UN, and even if it was – it would not have the right to open a process that is purely political in nature,” said Dodik.
He pointed out that respecting the Constitution of the RS, he signed the decree on the promulgation of the law, which passed the entire procedure in the National Assembly of the RS. He emphasized that the Bosniak People’s Club in the RS People’s Council did not raise the issue of establishing a violation of the vital national interest on that law. He said that he will defend himself in every way as the president of the RS because he came to the courtroom “where they clearly showed how they treat the constitutional order in BiH”. He explained that two flags, BiH and the Federation of BiH, were displayed, but there was no RS flag.
“I received the indictment in Latin, and it is known that I am a member of the Serbian people, and I asked for it to be delivered to me in Cyrillic. They tried to force the indictment on me during the hearing, which is in Cyrillic, and they ignore my constitutional right to receive it in writing and language that I understand. The indictment is incomprehensible because it was raised on the basis of the fact that (the former high representative in BiH Christian) Schmidt, who is obviously endangered by vanity, here proclaims laws that say that anyone who does not respect his wrongdoing can to go to prison for five years,” said Dodik.
He added that this is a process that will show whether BiH has a Constitution or not, and states that “as far as he can see, the judgment has been passed.” He called the process a circus, announcing that he would attend the next hearings as well.
Dodik and Lukić came to the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina with a large escort and support of SNSD members and officials. They unanimously consider the process political.
“What we had the opportunity to see today was such a circus. This is an absolute copy/paste scenario of how Donald Trump is tried in America,” said Sanja Vulić, president of the SNSD Club in the House of Representatives of BiH.
Radovan Kovačević, a delegate in the House of Peoples of Bosnia and Herzegovina, believes that things are completely clear: “Those who wanted to humiliate the RS will humiliate themselves and today we have certainly entered the beginning of the end of BiH”.
“You cannot find a single Serb in the Federation of BiH who will not tell you that this is a political indictment,” points out Đorđe Radanović, president of the Committee for the Protection of the Rights of Serbs in the FBiH.
The hearing ended with judge Jasmine Ćosić-Dedović stating that the accused, by refusing to plead, actually denied their guilt ex officio. After that, they received the minutes from the hearing in Cyrillic, as they requested, but they did not sign it.
The criminal offense for which Dodik and Lukić are charged carries a sentence of six months to five years in prison. The continuation of the trial is not yet known. The legal term is two months, RTRS reports.
