A judicial process that was supposed to start on Wednesday against the leader of the Bosnian Serbs, Milorad Dodik, for defying the decisions of the international peace envoy was postponed until January 17 due to procedural issues raised by his legal team.
The President of the Autonomous Serb Republic of Bosnia, Milorad Dodik, was accused in August by state prosecutors after he signed laws making the decisions of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia in the Serb Republic invalid and preventing the publication in the Official Gazette of this entity of the decisions of the international high representative.
This was the second time the legal process was postponed, as Milorad Dodik’s lawyers requested last month that it be moved to a court in Banja Luka, the capital of the Serb Republic, citing alleged political pressure on the state court in Sarajevo.
A judge rejected the request.
On Wednesday, the lawyers requested the exclusion of four prosecutors due to “bias”, preventing anyone from the prosecutor’s team from reading the indictment.
Judge Mirsad Strika adjourned the trial until January 17.
Milorad Dodik refused to make a statement in court and used inappropriate language when Judge Strika asked for a statement.
“This trial will turn into a trial of prosecutors and Bosnia and Herzegovina,” he told reporters as he left the court, accusing the prosecutors of bias and incompetence.
Under the peace agreement reached in Dayton, United States, in 1995, Bosnia was divided into two autonomous regions, the Serb Republic and a Federation dominated by Croats and Bosniaks, linked by a weak central government, a plan that ensured peace but left Bosnia dysfunctional as a state.
Milorad Dodik has long worked to separate his Serbian-dominated region from Bosnia but intensified efforts in the last two years, consistently denouncing his political opponents and Western ambassadors in Bosnia, where about 100,000 people died in the war.
Serbs do not recognize Christian Schmidt as the High Representative in Bosnia, saying that his appointment has not been approved by the United Nations Security Council.
Schmidt amended Bosnia’s criminal code in July to enable the prosecution of those considered to attack Bosnia’s state institutions.
According to the changes, any official in Bosnia who does not implement a decision of the High Representative or obstructs it in any way can be sentenced to up to five years in prison.
