The Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina today handed down a first-instance verdict against the President of the Republika Srpska (RS) entity, Milorad Dodik, sentencing him to one year in prison and a six-year ban on holding the political office of the President of the RS.
“The Court sentenced the accused Milorad Dodik to one (1) year in prison, as well as a security measure of a ban on holding the office of the President of the Republika Srpska for six (6) years, from the date the verdict becomes final,” the Court of BiH announced.
This is a first-instance verdict, which is not yet final, and will become so after both the defense and the prosecution file appeals and the final decision is made by the second-instance panel of the Court of BiH. The second-instance verdict should be pronounced by the end of this year.
If the final verdict is the same as the first-instance verdict, it means that Dodik will not be able to hold the office of President of the RS for the next six years. As for the prison sentence, given that he was sentenced to one year in prison, he will be able to redeem it for approximately 36,000 BAM under the current law.
As for the director of the Official Gazette of the Republic of Srpska, Miloš Lukić, he was acquitted of all charges.
What was Dodik convicted of?
In 2023, the RS National Assembly adopted a law according to which the decisions of the High Representative in BiH will not be published in the Official Gazette of the RS nor will they be implemented in that entity. Shortly after, the High Representative annulled that law, but Milorad Dodik ignored it and signed a decree promulgating that law.
In the meantime, the High Representative also amended the Criminal Code of BiH, according to which failure to implement the decisions of the High Representative is a criminal offense. And since Dodik ignored all of this, the Prosecutor’s Office filed an indictment against Dodik and the director of the Official Gazette of the RS, Miloš Lukić, Klix.ba writes.
