Due to alleged abuse of office – court confirms indictment against Serbian leader Dodik Ukrainian secret service: Russia can hold out for a maximum of another year

The court of Bosnia and Herzegovina has upheld an indictment against the president of the Serbian part of the country, Milorad Dodik, for alleged abuse of office. Bosnian media reported this on Monday. This means that the nationalist politician could be brought to justice.

The Bosnian Public Prosecutor’s Office had filed the charges last month because Dodik had ensured that decisions by the representative of the international community, German Christian Schmidt, were no longer published in the Official Gazette of the Republic of Srpska (RS). The Public Prosecution Service had also filed charges against the director of the official gazette, Milos Lukic. The court also allowed this.

The legal dispute is an expression of a political power struggle. The Russian-backed Dodik aims to separate the RS from the Bosnian state. In doing so, he violates the Dayton Peace Treaty, which in 1995 ended the more than three-year war between Serbs, Bosnians and Croats. The international representative must ensure compliance with the Dayton Agreement. He has extensive powers to this end. He can, among other things, make and repeal laws.

The RS parliament, controlled by Dodik, passed a law in June that would have nullified the rulings of the Bosnian Constitutional Court in RS territory. Schmidt immediately repealed this law. This decision still appeared in the official gazette of the RS. Immediately afterwards, Dodik banned the publication of Schmidt’s further decrees in the official gazette. (sda/dpa)