On Wednesday 26 February, the Court of Bosnia-Herzegovina announced that Milorad Dodik had been sentenced to one year’s imprisonment and a six-year ban on holding office, following a trial in which the main defendant was not present.
Leader of the Bosnian Serb entity since 2006, Milorad Dodik was found guilty of rejecting the authority of the international High Representative responsible for overseeing the peace agreement in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
He is accused of having promulgated in July 2023 two laws adopted by the Parliament of the Bosnian Serb Republic (Republika Srpska) prohibiting the entry into force in the Serbian entity of the rulings of the Bosnian Constitutional Court and the decisions of the High Representative, Christian Schmidt.
Milorad Dodik immediately denounced the outcome of the verdict at a rally in Banja Luka, the capital of Republika Srpska. From the outset, the leader has denounced a “political trial” with the aim of “eliminating him from the political arena”.
Hungary’s leader, Viktor Orbán, reacted to the conviction in a post on X, declaring that “the political witch-hunt against President [Dodik] is a sad example of the instrumentalisation of the legal system against a democratically elected leader”.
Several MEPs on the Committee on Foreign Affairs reacted, stating that “the pressure and intimidation exerted on the judiciary prior to this judgment are unacceptable” and pointing out that the Parliament had “called for sanctions against destabilising political actors in Bosnia who show support for secessionist ambitions”.
The European Union and other international organisations are calling for restraint and the avoidance of any political threat or harmful action. (Original version in French by Isalia Stieffatre)