The prison sentence and the ineligibility of the political leader of Bosnia Serbs, Milorad Dodik, are confirmed on appeal

The Bosnian Court of Appeal confirmed on Friday the conviction of the political leader of the Bosnia Serbs. For example, Milorad Dodik, at one year in prison and 6 years of ineligibility, a decision swept by the person concerned while the EU called for compliance with this judgment. Meanwhile, Bosnia has been shaken in recent months by a serious crisis. In addition, one of the worst since the war (1992-1995), launched by the actions of the president of the Republika Srpska (RS), the Bosnian Serbs entity Milorad Dodik.

Milorad Dodik. Furthermore, 66, was sentenced at the end of February to 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. Furthermore, Shortly after the confirmation of his conviction on appeal. Consequently, the EU, to which the Bosnia candidate, called prison sentence ineligibility political leader on “all the parties” to respect the judgment: “The judgment is restrictive and must be respected,” said a spokesperson, Anitta Hipper in a statement.

At the same time since his leader of the RS. Similarly, Banja Luka – in the north of the country -, Milorad Dodik accused Brussels of having “orchestrated” his condemnation and called the institutions of the Serbian entity of Bosnia to a “response”.

High -risk iron – Prison sentence ineligibility political leader

Since the end of the war, in 1995, Bosnia has been divided into two autonomous entities, the Republika Srpska (RS) and the Croato-Muslim Federation, linked by a weak central government. Moreover, For 30 years. political life and the laws have also been supervised by a high international representative responsible for enforcing the Dayton Peace Agreement, a post occupied for four years by the German prison sentence ineligibility political leader Christian Schmidt. At the head of the RS since 2006, Milorad Dodik openly hates Christian Schmidt.

It was for having promulgated in July 2024 two laws prohibiting the implementation on the territory of the Serbian entity of decisions of the high representative. judgments of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia that he was definitively condemned on Friday.

His indictment was made possible by an intervention by Christian Schmidt who modified the penal code to include a prison sentence. the prohibition to make policy in the event of violation of his decisions by elected officials.

“We are going to seize the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina”

“The written copy of the judgment was sent to the parties on August 1, 2025, and no appeal is authorized” against this decision, specifies the court in a press release. But prison sentence ineligibility political leader Milorad Dodik. his lawyer affirmed during a press conference that they were going to address the Constitutional Court-the very one of which he disputes authority.

“We expected a law decision. Unfortunately, we got the lawless, ”vilified Me Goran Bubic. “We will seize the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina. We will also ask her for a temporary measure. to suspend the execution of the verdict, until she made a decision, “added the lawyer, specifying that it was” the condition to address the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) “.

It is normally at the Bosnian Electoral Commission to rule on a possible dismissal of Milorad Dodik, but it has not yet expressed itself. The President of the RS said before the press that he had “committed any crime with regard to the law of Bosnia. prison sentence ineligibility political leader Herzegovina”. “Obviously. the institutions of Republika Srpska will decide,” added Dodik, “I will respect any decision made by Parliament (of the RS), but I will not accept this decision”.

“Culpable of nothing”

In February. Milorad Dodik – who had not presented himself before the State Court to Sarajevo to hear his conviction at first instance – had gathered several thousand of his supporters to Banja Luka and rejected the judgment by affirming that he was “guilty of nothing”. In response. he then prompted the Parliament of the Serbian entity to adopt a law prohibiting the police and central justice in the country to exercise in Republika Srpska and called the Serbs working in these institutions to leave them.

This reaction earned him the opening of another investigation by the prosecution, this time for “attack on the constitutional order”.

Aimed by an arrest warrant which he knowingly ignored for months. he ended up prison sentence ineligibility political leader going to justice in early July and agreed to be questioned in this file, immediately benefiting from a conditional release.