The Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina has issued an Order to Suspend the Investigation against the President of Republika Srpska and SNSD leader Milorad Dodik, even though he had previously publicly stated that he was wiretapping the opposition.
This statement was made at the 13th Special Session of the National Assembly of Republika Srpska (NARS) on May 20, 2020. Nine days later, after a report by Transparency International in BiH and opposition representatives, the Prosecutor’s Office of BiH requested that the first checks be carried out, but the Order to Conduct an Investigation was issued only in September 2022, after Dodik stated that he was also wiretapping the US Ambassador to BiH.
Since the Order to Conduct an Investigation was issued too late, that is, only two years after this criminal act was reported, in the opinion of TI BiH, significant time was lost for collecting evidence.
TI BiH states that the prosecutor’s decision indicates that some evidence could not even have been collected, as it is kept for a maximum of one year, which raises the question of why it took two full years to issue an order to conduct an investigation?
The prosecutor’s office states that it has established cooperation with the Intelligence and Security Agency of BiH (OSA), which was given the opportunity to verify these allegations without detailed explanation.
“Also, checks were carried out to determine the possibility of expert examination of a certain server through which lawful interceptions of telecommunications are carried out, and to determine whether there are recorded communications on it that indicate a possible unlawful interception. The aforementioned checks determined that data is kept on the server for a maximum of one year, and that the removal of the server for inspection or expert examination is almost impossible, because that would jeopardize all investigations in which special investigative actions are being carried out. Namely, the lawful interception of communications would have to be terminated, and there is no other server,” the prosecutor’s decision states.
The decision of the Prosecutor’s Office of BiH also indicates that numerous witnesses were heard in this case, but not the suspect Milorad Dodik.
“It should be emphasized that the acting prosecutor had the opportunity to conduct special investigative actions against the suspect, bearing in mind that he was charged with the criminal offense of Unauthorized Wiretapping and Audio or Optical Recording, however, the decision did not state that these actions were taken. TI BiH filed a complaint with the Chief Prosecutor of the Prosecutor’s Office of BiH, and pointed out the shortcomings of the specific procedure,” TI BiH stated.
Numerous witnesses were heard in this case, primarily the then opposition MPs Nebojša Vukanović, Draško Stanivuković, Ivanka Marković, Miladin Stanić, Nedeljko Glamočak, Davor Šešić, Milan Tubin, Zoran Vidić and Tomica Stojanović and Branislav Borenović. The then Minister of Internal Affairs of the RS, Dragan Lukač, was also questioned, to whom Dodik addressed at the disputed session when he publicly stated that he was wiretapping opposition MPs, and even relayed details of allegedly recorded telephone conversations.
SIPA was also engaged in the investigation, at the order of the Prosecutor’s Office of BiH, and was reportedly checking the activities of the RS Ministry of Internal Affairs related to the use of equipment used to conduct special investigative actions “surveillance and recording of technical communications”.
Given that Dodik specifically claimed to be in possession of the telephone recording of Nebojša Vukanović and Draško Stanivuković, the Prosecutor’s Office of BiH issued orders in March of this year to the BiH Border Police, SIPA, and the RS Ministry of Internal Affairs to check whether the phones of the two then MPs were the subject of special investigative actions from November 2018 to the disputed session in 2020. However, it is not clear from the Decision whether the Prosecutor’s Office checked whether the disputed telephone conversation was audio recorded.
These three institutions informed the Prosecutor’s Office that their phones were not the subject of special investigative actions, and from the interrogation of the two deputies, the Prosecutor’s Office could not draw a conclusion as to whether Dodik’s claims relate to the content of the telephone conversations between Stanivuković and Vukanović.
“The Prosecutor’s Office concluded from all of this that there is insufficient evidence that Dodik committed the criminal offense of Unauthorized Wiretapping and Audio or Optical Recording, which is why the investigation was suspended,” TI BiH concluded.
