The Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) announced today that, in connection with the criminal complaint filed by Jasmin Duvnjak, the President of the Bosniak People’s Delegates’ Club in the House of Peoples of the Parliament of the Federation of BiH, it will not initiate an investigation against the leader of the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD), Milorad Dodik, for cursing genocide.
Denying genocide in BiH carries a sentence of six months to five years in prison.
Sarajevo media report that many participants in the meeting of the then ruling coalition (Troika, SNSD, HDZ) in Konjic in the summer of 2023 stated that Dodik had cursed genocide at the time, and a few months later Duvnjak filed a criminal complaint against him for this.
According to the prosecutor’s office, Duvnjak submitted media articles with the complaint in which, among others, the Minister of Defense of BiH Zukan Helez and Milorad Dodik spoke about the genocide being cursed.
The Prosecutor’s Office stated that members of the BiH Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA) took a statement from Helez, in which he stated that Dodik had cursed genocide at an inter-party meeting in Konjic.
Duvnjak, who filed a criminal complaint against Dodik, was also questioned by SIPA.
The BiH Prosecutor’s Office announced that it would not launch an investigation, because the complaint and accompanying documents show that no criminal offense was committed – that there is no evidence that Dodik could have incited violence with his statement, as defined by the BiH Criminal Code.
“It is necessary that the specific action is objectively suitable to incite violence and hatred,” the BiH Prosecutor’s Office assessed.
