The Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina has requested Interpol issue an international arrest warrant for Milorad Dodik, the president of the country’s Serb entity, Republika Srpska (RS).
The court stated that Dodik and Nenad Stevandi?, the speaker of the RS National Assembly (NSRS), for whom domestic arrest warrants were already issued for “threatening constitutional order,” had crossed into Serbia.
“Following the arrest warrant, Dodik initially went to Serbia and is currently in Israel. Stevandi?, on the other hand, was able to travel back and forth from Serbia without any problem,” the court said.
The court added that it had submitted a request to Interpol for international arrest warrants for Dodik and Stevandi? due to their “unlawful behaviour,” noting that an Interpol decision was necessary for the matter to proceed.
Last month, the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina sentenced Dodik to a suspended one-year prison term and a six-year ban from political activity for “disobeying decisions of the High Representative’s Office (OHR).”
Following the verdict, the NSRS voted to block state institutions from operating within the RS entity. Dodik has continued to pursue separatist rhetoric, including discussions of a new “constitution” for the RS that includes articles on “self-determination” and the creation of an RS army.
The Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina recently issued domestic arrest warrants for Dodik, Stevandi?, and RS Prime Minister Radovan Viskovi? on charges of “threatening constitutional order.”
