The Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) formed a case related to a criminal complaint against an official from Republika Srpska. A criminal complaint was filed against the leader of the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD), Milorad Dodik, the president of the RS National Assembly, Nenad Stevandić, the Minister of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations in the BiH Council of Ministers, Staša Košarac, and the leader of the Safe Srpska Movement (PSS) and the mayor of Banja Luka, Draško Stanivuković, due to the statements published on the occasion of the death of the wartime commander of the RS Army (VRS) and Hague prisoner Ratko Mladić.
The media reported that the case was handed over to the acting prosecutor and that the application states that “there is a justified suspicion that on August 27, with their public appearances, statements and announcements, they approved, denied, grossly minimized or tried to justify genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes for which Ratko Mladić was finally sentenced”.
It is added that the address of the Prosecutor’s Office of BiH has received hundreds of reports against persons from the RS who spoke about Mladić’s death, expressed their condolences to his family and spoke affirmatively about him and his role during the war in BiH. Earlier, Vojin Pavlović and Miodrag Malić were sentenced to three-and-a-half and three-year prison sentences for glorifying people convicted of war crimes, namely Ratko Mladić while he was still alive.
Former High Representative in BiH Valentin Inzko imposed in July 2021, right before the end of his mandate in BiH, amendments to the Criminal Code of BiH, which prohibit and punish the denial of genocide and the glorification of persons convicted of war crimes.
For these criminal acts, a prison sentence of six months to five years is foreseen.
