The Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina told Radio Free Europe (RSE) on July 15 that "there is no prescribed precise deadline for drafting a second-instance decision" in the case involving Milorad Dodik, the President of Republika Srpska (RS).
It is emphasized that the decisions of the Appellate Panel "are prepared and delivered to the parties within a reasonable time, which is assessed in each specific case depending on the complexity of the case."
According to the Criminal Procedure Code of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), the second-instance verdict must be pronounced no later than 30 days after the hearing before the Appellate Chamber or the judges must inform the President of the Court of BiH why this has not been done.
Milorad Dodik's hearing was held on June 12th, when the Prosecutor's Office of BiH requested that he be sentenced to a harsher sentence and, instead of the one-year prison sentence he was sentenced to in the first instance, to several years in prison.
At that session of the Council of the Appellate Division of the Court of BiH, the Prosecutor's Office also requested that Dodik be banned from holding office for more than six years.
For the second defendant, Miloš Lukić, the request was to overturn the acquittal, retry the trial, or have the Appellate Chamber pronounce a guilty verdict.
On February 26, the Court of BiH handed down a first-instance verdict, sentencing Dodik to one year in prison and a six-year ban from holding the office of President of the RS, while acquitting Lukić of all charges.
Dodik was found guilty of disrespecting the decisions of High Representative Christian Schmidt and signing a decree promulgating laws that Schmidt had previously annulled.
These laws attempted to prevent the implementation of decisions of the Constitutional Court of BiH and the High Representative in the territory of RS, which had previously annulled laws passed by the entity parliament that related to the registration of state property in the entity or laws on holidays.
The day after the verdict was pronounced, the RS National Assembly passed laws on February 27th that prohibit and criminalize the work of state police and judicial institutions on the territory of this entity.
The Constitutional Court of BiH temporarily halted the implementation of these laws on March 7th.
The President, Prime Minister and Speaker of the National Assembly of Republika Srpska, Milorad Dodik, Radovan Višković and Nenad Stevandić, were subsequently suspected of attacking the constitutional order, and a central arrest warrant was issued for them by the Court of BiH.
However, although the central warrant requires all police agencies in BiH to arrest them, this has not happened to date, and they are carrying out their duties normally.
If the final verdict is a conviction, it will be possible to appeal it to the Constitutional Court of BiH, if the convicted persons believe that their human rights have been violated or due to a violation of the legal process.
If that court rejects the appeal, an appeal is possible before the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.
Bonus video:
