The Vice President of Republika Srpska, Ćamil Duraković, has filed a criminal complaint with the Prosecutor’s Office in Banja Luka against the Minister of Finance of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Srđan Amidžić, for hate speech.
Duraković filed a criminal complaint with the District Prosecutor’s Office in Banja Luka over Amidžić’s statements at a press conference in Gradiška.
Administration failed to reach an agreement to open a new border crossing. The Minister then made a series of offensive statements against Bosniaks and Board member Zijad Krnjić, which were broadcast live on several television and online media.
Among the statements was the following: “Zijad Krnjić is a Muslim who punishes the Serbian, Bosniak and Croatian people and sees Serbs as Jews in World War II. If he could, he would probably put yellow stars on his shoulder to distinguish us from others in the country and to make it known that we are second-class citizens”.
This statement in the report is qualified as instrumentalization of the Holocaust for the purpose of inciting ethnic and religious intolerance, which falls under Article 359, paragraph (2) of the Criminal Code of the Republika Srpska, which provides for a more severe sanction when the act is committed by a public official through the media.
Amidžić’s statement was particularly singled out: “Someone needs to die to appease Krnjić”. The report states that the physical gesture gives the statement a material context which, as stated in the report, eliminates the possibility of interpretation as rhetoric, and it is claimed that this fulfills the elements of the criminal offense of endangering security under Article 153 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Srpska against a specific, named person.
At the same conference, Amidžić also stated that “Bosnia and Herzegovina cannot exist”, that “this country has no future” and that “we should be transferred continentally to Africa, but they would throw us out there too”.
“These statements, along with the blanket characterization of Muslims from the FBiH as bearers of hatred towards the RS, are treated by the report as content that, in their entirety, has an objectively inciting character towards an ethnic and religious group,” Duraković’s statement states.
