The president of Republika Srpska, Milorad Dodik, has accused the EU of attacking his nation after a Bosnian appeals court upheld a prison sentence against him and a ban on his political activity.
The leader of the autonomous entity within Bosnia and Herzegovina was originally sentenced in February to one year in prison and a six-year political ban for defying rulings from the country’s Constitutional Court and the authority of an international overseer.
A Sarajevo-based court sentenced Dodik to one year in prison and barred him from holding presidential office for six years in February, claiming he was obstructing decisions made by Bosnia’s constitutional court and defying the authority of international envoy Christian Schmidt. A German national, Schmidt has been formally tasked with overseeing the implementation of the 1995 Dayton Peace Agreement as head of the Office of the High Representative (OHR). Dodik has long accused the OHR of overreach and of infringing on Republika Srpska’s autonomy.
The court in Sarajevo ruled that Dodik acted illegally when he signed legislation that made the peace envoy’s decrees non-binding in Republika Srpska and suspended the enforcement of Constitutional Court rulings on its territory.
Dodik rejected the ruling on Friday, vowing to continue in office as Bosnian Serb president.
”This is an attack on [Republika Srpska]! This is a purely political decision…” he stated, as quoted by various media outlets.
He also claimed the EU was behind the judgement, accusing Brussels of trying to flex its power amid broader failures on issues like the Ukraine conflict and US tariffs. He pledged to seek support from Serbia, Russia, and the US.
Bosnia and Herzegovina consists of two entities – the Bosniak-Croat Federation and Republika Srpska – under a tripartite presidency and the oversight of the OHR. The country was granted EU candidate status in 2022.
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Dodik has opposed Bosnia’s EU accession and integration with NATO, calling instead for closer ties with Russia. He previously suggested that Bosnia would be better off in BRICS and has pledged continued cooperation with Moscow despite Western pressure.
Moscow has denounced Dodik’s conviction as “absolutely political” and based on a “pseudo-law” pushed through by the OHR. The Kremlin questions Schmidt’s legitimacy, arguing that his appointment as the high representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina never received the approval of the UN Security Council, which is typically required in such cases.
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