The trial of the President of the Republika Srpska entity, Milorad Dodik, and the acting director of the Official Gazette of Srpska, Miloš Lukić, will continue today in the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina for disobeying the decisions of the High Representative. The trial is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m.
At the trial on September 18, the defense witness stated that no one has the authority to stop the procedure of publishing the law in the Official Gazette of Republika Srpska.
Testifying at the defense call of Miloš Lukić, former Acting Director of the Official Gazette, Secretary General of the National Assembly of the RS and President of the Board of Directors of the Official Gazette, Boran Bosančić said that the Director of the Official Gazette does not have the ability to stop or change anything in the submitted laws or regulations, or even to correct a technical error.
“If someone were to do that, it would represent an attack on the constitutional and legal order,” said Bosančić.
When asked by defense attorney Miljkan Pucar whether the Office of the High Representative (OHR) or the High Representative can order the director of the Official Gazette not to publish a law, the witness said that they cannot.
“This duty of the high representative is not prescribed anywhere,” said Bosančić.
He said that at the special sessions of the National Assembly held on June 21 and 27, 2023, all procedures prescribed by the law and the Rules of Procedure were followed during the adoption of the law. After that, as he said, a letter from the High Representative was sent to the e-mail of the President of the Assembly prohibiting the publication of the two adopted laws, as well as the decision to impose changes to the Criminal Code.
The witness said that even the President of the National Assembly does not have the authority to stop the legal procedure and that he is obliged to sign the adopted laws.
Lukić is accused with Milorad Dodik, the President of the Republika Srpska, of being in Banja Luka from July 1 to 9, 2023, knowing and knowing that High Representative Christian Schmidt made a decision preventing the entry into force of the Law on Non-Enforcement of Decisions of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina from July 1 of the same year, as well as the decision preventing the entry into force of the Law on Amendments to the Law on the Publication of Laws and Other Regulations of the Republika Srpska, took actions with the aim of continuing the legislative procedure, not applying and not implementing the decisions of the High Representative, Fena writes.
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