The President of Republika Srpska, Milorad Dodik, pardoned five convicts, including former attorney general Mirko Stojčinović and former director of the hospital in Doboj, Mladen Gajić.
Dodik exercised his legal right, although the District Court in Banja Luka gave a negative opinion in both cases, the Banja Luka portal Kapital (Capital.ba) reported.
In a July 2021 verdict, Stojčinović was sentenced to two and a half years in prison for abuse of official position and authority, and the verdict was confirmed by the Supreme Court of the RS in September 2022. He is also prohibited from working in the civil service.
He was judged to have caused millions of dollars in damage to the City of Banja Luka with his failures.
The former director of the hospital in Doboj, Mladen Gajić, will have his conviction for negligent work in the service, which sentenced him to ten months in prison, and which was later replaced by a fine that he paid, will be erased.
Gajić was accused by the prosecution of conducting the public procurement procedure of protective suits and masks for the needs of the hospital, as well as for the “Home for the Elderly Doboj” through a negotiation process without publishing a procurement notice, with a total value of 136,918 BAM (about 70 thousand euros) including VAT.
According to the indictment, instead of contracted medical, non-medical goods were delivered, damaging the budget of the city of Doboj by 82,320 BAM (about 42 thousand euros). Gajić also reimbursed that money.
In addition to those two, Dodik pardoned several people prone to violence, one of whom was convicted of causing a traffic accident in which a motorcyclist died.
The president of the opposition People’s Front (NF), Jelena Trivić, called it “shameful” that Dodik pardoned convicted persons, cadres of his Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD), who abused their official position and caused multimillion-dollar damages to the City of Banja Luka and the health system of the RS, as well as persons prone to violence.
Trivić assessed that it was “at the same time Dodik’s call to all criminals to continue robbing and extorting from the people, because what are the courts for when Dodik is there to pardon them”.
Photo: N1
