Milorad Dodik, the president of the Bosnian entity Republika Srpska (RS), has been sentenced by a final verdict for disrespecting the decisions of the High Representative, Radio Free Europe has learned.
The verdict was reached by a three-member panel consisting of Amela Huskić, Vesna Jesenković and Hilmo Vučinić, and the panel confirmed the first-instance verdict of February 26, which sentenced Dodik to one year in prison and a six-year ban on holding political office.
Dodik's legal team, as well as the Prosecutor's Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina, appealed the first-instance decision of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The prosecution requested an increase in the prison sentence, as well as a ban on holding office, while the defense requested the verdict be overturned.
Dodik was found guilty of signing a decree promulgating a law that the High Representative in BiH, Christian Schmidt, had previously annulled.
With these laws, the legislative bodies in the RS attempted to prevent the implementation of decisions of the Constitutional Court of BiH and the High Representative on the territory of this Bosnian and Herzegovina entity.
The second defendant in the trial, Miloš Lukić, acting director of the Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia, which published the disputed laws, was acquitted in the first instance.
Shortly after the verdict in February, the RS National Assembly adopted a set of laws abolishing the jurisdiction of state judicial and police institutions on the territory of RS, and in mid-March, the Court of BiH issued a central arrest warrant against Dodik, on suspicion of attacking the constitutional order.
An arrest warrant has been issued for Radovan Višković and Nenad Stevandić, the Prime Minister of the RS and the Speaker of the entity parliament, due to the same suspicions.
Although the central warrant means that all police agencies in the country should arrest them and hand them over to the jurisdiction of state judicial authorities, this did not happen in the following months.
In early July, Dodik voluntarily came to the Prosecutor's Office of BiH, accompanied by his defense attorney, Goran Bubić, and his detention was lifted, and a measure of mandatory periodic reporting to a state authority was imposed.
Višković and Stevandić also voluntarily appeared before the Court a few days later, and their detention was also terminated.
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