The Prosecutor's Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina has requested the arrest of Republika Srpska President Milorad Dodik, Prime Minister Radovan Višković, and Speaker of the People's Skupština (parliament) Nenad Števandić.
The watchdog has also requested assistance from the Republika Srpska Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Bosnian Federal Police Agency. The politicians are accused of violating the constitutional order. Radovan Kovačević, a spokesman for Dodik's Independent Social Democrats party, commented on the prosecutor's decision and said that "no one wants to and cannot arrest the state leadership of Republika Srpska. Republika Srpska is not carrying out any attacks on the constitutional order," he said.
On February 26, a court in Bosnia and Herzegovina sentenced Dodik in absentia to one year in prison. It banned him from political activity for six years, finding him guilty of ignoring the decisions of the Constitutional Court and the High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina, Christian Schmidt.
Schmidt oversees the implementation of the Dayton Accords, which ended the 1992-1995 war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In 2023, the Republika Srpska parliament passed a law that will stop the publication of the High Representative's decisions in the Official Gazette. in the "Bulletin." Schmidt, in turn, annulled the act, but Dodik insisted that he would enforce the law.
The high representative then changed the Criminal Code, making non-compliance with his decisions a criminal offense. Dodik said the authorities did not recognize the Bosnian court's decision, which "was made by a foreigner who was not appointed by the UN and has no legitimate authority to do so."
AFP reports that Dodik has repeatedly threatened to withdraw Republika Srpska from Bosnia and Herzegovina and the army, judiciary, and tax system from the central government, for which he has been subject to US sanctions. Last week, Bosnia's Constitutional Court suspended the laws signed by Dodik that prohibit the presence of representatives of the National Police and the Bosnian judiciary on the territory of Republika Srpska.
