Bosnia
The arrest warrant against the chief of the Serbes Milorad Dodik canceled
Wanted, the leader of the Bosnian Serbs, Milorad Dodik, has chosen to go to Bosnian justice to be questioned by the prosecution.
Milorad Dodik, à Sarajevo, LE 24 Avril 2025.
AFP
The political leader of Bosnia Serbs, Milorad Dodik, went to local justice on Friday After challenging it for more than three months And agreed to be questioned in a file for “attack on the constitutional order”, immediately benefiting from a conditional release.
The president of the Republika Srpska (RS), the Serbian entity of Bosnia, was targeted since March 18 by a national arrest warrant, after having refused a convocation of the State prosecution, in Sarajevo, to be questioned in this case. But his arrest seemed impossible and too risky in a divided country where peace seems fragile, thirty years after a bloody intercommunity conflict (1992-1995).
He had moved since the Serbian entity in the presence of members of an elite police unit of this Serbian entity, and made several trips abroad, in neighboring Serbia, but also in Russia and Hungary. Seized by Bosnian justice, Interpol had however refused to disseminate a red notice against the manager.
Weakness
Post-war Bosnia is divided into two autonomous entities, the RS and the Croato-Muslim Federation, connected by a weak central government.
“The suspect Milorad Dodik voluntarily presented himself on July 4 before the Bosnia and Herzegovina prosecution, with his lawyer, to be questioned as a suspect as part of the investigation,” said the prosecution and the Bosnian State Court in a joint statement, specifying that the request for its detention had been “canceled” and that it was immediately released.
Milorad Dodik will have to appear regularly before the police, and a new detention may be ordered in the event of a violation of this measure, according to the same source.
“Political trial”
“This is an important thing for me, but it is also important compared to those who were malicious and who wanted destabilization, an escalation of problems in Bosnia through this case,” Milorad Dodik told a public television channel. “I don’t feel triumphant. I’m tired of all this, ”he added.
Milorad Dodik, 66, who has run the RS since 2006, was sought after by the prosecution for advocating the prohibition for the country’s police and justice to exercise on the territory of the Serbian entity. It was his reaction to the conviction at the end of February by the Bosnia State Court, in Sarajevo, a year in prison and six years of ineligibility for non-compliance with the decisions of the High International Representative, responsible for enforcing the peace agreement in the country.
It is a first instance verdict and an appeal decision should soon be announced. But the convicted person had rejected this verdict by denouncing a “political trial”. And he had then encouraged the Parliament of the Republika Srpska to immediately adopt laws to prohibit police (SIPA) and central judicial institutions from the country to exercise in the Serbian entity, on 49% of the country.
Possible charge
The State Prosecutor’s Office then opened an investigation into these activities deemed to be secessionists. The Prime Minister of the RS, Radovan Viskovic, and the president of his Parliament, Nenad Stevandic, are also sought in the same file.
After questioning Milorad Dodik, the prosecution can now decide a possible indictment in this second file. However, the Constitutional Court of Bosnia – which Milorad Dodik does not recognize either – canceled the secessionist laws of the Serbian entity at the end of May, whose adoption had caused one of the most serious political crises since the end of the war.
The skills of the Bosnian central government have been strengthened over the years after the war, to the detriment of entities, and often under Western pressure. Thus the central police and justice were set up.
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