Latest news with #CourtofBosniaandHerzegovina
Korea Herald
01-05-2025
- Politics
- Korea Herald
Bosnia says Interpol refused 'red notice' appeal for wanted leader Dodik
Interpol has confirmed its refusal to issue a notice to detain Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik, who is wanted by Bosnia's federal authorities on secession charges, a court said on Wednesday. The Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina said Interpol "has not accepted a request to revise its decision about the issue of an arrest warrant" against Dodik, president of the Bosnian Serb statelet of Republika Srpska, and RS parliament speaker Nenad Stevandic. Interpol declined a request to comment. Since the end of its bloody inter-ethnic war in 1995, Bosnia has been split between two autonomous halves -- the Serbs' Republika Srpska and a Muslim-Croat Federation. Each has its own government and parliament, with only weak central institutions binding the country of 3.5 million people together. Dodik, 66, and Stevandic, 58, as well as RS prime minister Radovan Viskovic, 61, are wanted for questioning on suspicion of "attacking the constitutional order" in Bosnia. Interpol earlier this month rejected a Bosnian request to issue a "red notice," which asks law enforcement bodies worldwide to provisionally detain a wanted person pending extradition. Dodik, who has led the RS since 2006, was sentenced to one year in prison and banned from holding political office for six in February for failing to comply with decisions of the international high representative who oversees the peace accord in Bosnia. He rejected the trial as "political" and responded by banning the federal police and judiciary from operating in the Serb statelet. Federal prosecutors deemed his actions secessionist and opened an investigation, but the three men have not been arrested because of the risk of destabilising the fragile Balkan nation. Dodik and Stevandic both travelled abroad after an arrest warrant was issued on March 18, prompting the Bosnian courts to contact Interpol. The RS leader has been in Serbia, Israel and Russia in recent weeks, and is expected to be in Moscow again on May 9 for a parade marking the 80th anniversary of victory over Nazi Germany in World War II. Bosnia's federal police attempted to question him last week when he was in east Sarajevo, which is part of the Serb statelet, but were blocked by Bosnian Serb Interior Ministry forces.
Russia Today
03-04-2025
- Politics
- Russia Today
Interpol refuses request to arrest Bosnian Serb leader
Interpol has rejected Bosnia and Herzegovina's request to issue wanted alerts for the president and parliament speaker of Republika Srpska – a Serb-majority region within the country. Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik made the announcement on X on Wednesday. Bosnia's state court also confirmed to Reuters that a Red Notice for Dodik and parliament speaker Nenad Stevandic had not come into effect. A Red Notice is a request to law enforcement worldwide to locate and provisionally arrest a person pending extradition, surrender, or similar legal action. Interpol's decision followed an appeal from neighboring Serbia, which argued that Sarajevo's request was politically motivated and violated Interpol's neutrality principles. 'I just received a call from [Serbian] President Aleksandar Vucic to inform me that… that Interpol rejected the request of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina to issue a red notice for [Speaker Nenad] Stevandic and me,' Dodik wrote on X on Wednesday. READ MORE: Western 'interventionism' has turned Bosnia and Herzegovina into a 'failed state' – Bosnian Serb leader The Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina had sought the Interpol notice after Dodik defied an arrest warrant at home and traveled to Serbia, Israel, and Russia in March. Dodik and Stevandic have been accused of 'attacking the constitutional order' by allegedly enacting laws that restrict the operations of Bosnia's state-level judiciary and law enforcement agencies. Created under the 1995 US-brokered Dayton Peace Agreement, Bosnia and Herzegovina is comprised of the Bosniak-Croat Federation and Republika Srpska, with a tripartite presidency and an international overseer – the Office of the High Representative (OHR). Dodik has long rejected the OHR's authority, accusing it of overreach and undermining Republika Srpska's autonomy. He was sentenced in February to a year in prison and a six-year political ban for defying the OHR. The Serbian leadership vowed to prevent the detention of Republika Srpska's top officials and described Sarajevo's moves as a 'continuous attempt at revenge' against Dodik and the Serbian people. Russia denounced Dodik's conviction as an 'absolutely political' decision by the Bosnia and Herzegovina judiciary based on a 'pseudo-law' pushed through by the OHR. READ MORE: Moscow comments on conviction of Bosnian Serb leader Earlier this week, Dodik visited Russia for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin. In an interview with RT, he said the Dayton Agreement is no longer upheld and that he is seeking Putin's assistance in bringing the situation to the UN Security Council.
Euronews
18-03-2025
- Politics
- Euronews
Tonnes of oil leaked after suspected sabotage act in Norway
Roughly 60,000 tonnes of oil leaked at a transformer station near Oslo on Sunday after the premises were reportedly broken into. On Monday, Norwegian police said they were investigating the break-in at the disused electricity transformer station in Norway's Bærum municipality. Part of the fence surrounding the premises had been cut and the cover at the bottom of the transformer was unscrewed and left open. National power grid operator Statnett believe the incident was an act of deliberate sabotage. "It appears that someone has broken in and removed a cover on the transformer, and left it open, causing a significant amount of oil to spill out," Thomas Fennefoss, Project Manager at Statnett said. However, police authorities said in a statement that they currently had no concrete evidence to confirm so. The oil, harmful to the environment but not to humans, reached the Sandvikselva River nearby the station. Some of the oil also seeped underground. Richard Kongsteien, Communication Manager for Bærum municipality, said efforts are underway to minimise the environment impact. Oil barriers and absorbents have been deployed to contain and clean up the spill. The Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina has issued a nationwide arrest warrant for Milorad Dodik and two others, after the President of Bosnia's Serb-dominated Republika Srpska entity ignored a state-level one last week. The other two are the entity's Prime Minister Radovan Višković and National Assembly Speaker Nenad Stevandić. The warrant means that any police officer in the country who encounters them must arrest them immediately. They are all accused of anti-constitutional conduct. Bosnian media reports that Stevandić has left the country for Serbia. Bosnia's state-level prosecutors issued arrest warrants for the trio last week, which was has not been carried out. Dodik has not commented yet on the new warrant but has posted on X that Republika Srpska is taking steps to form its own border police. This will control the border between the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Republika Srpska, the two entities in the country. Dodik, who previously said he does not recognise the country's state-level prosecutor's office, has rejected last week's warrant's validity and any attempts at his arrest, and said he will not go to Sarajevo for questioning. Bosnia's state-level court convicted Dodik in late February of going against the decisions of the country's international peace envoy, Christian Schmidt, which constitutes a criminal act. The verdict is not final, and Dodik can appeal it. Shortly after, Dodik introduced new laws meant to ban the operation of state-level security and judicial institutions in what comprises about half of the Western Balkan country's territory. The decisions have been temporarily suspended by the state-level Constitutional Court. The European peacekeeping force in Bosnia, EUFOR, has said it was stepping up the number of its troops in response to the tensions.
Yahoo
26-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Bosnian-Serb leader sentenced to jail in landmark trial
A one-year prison sentence and a six-year ban on holding public office might seem like a heavy penalty for a politician. But the Bosnian-Serb leader Milorad Dodik made light of the verdict at the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The president of the country's majority-Serb Republika Srpska region told supporters at a rally in the regional capital Banja Luka there was "no reason to worry". His conviction on charges of ignoring the rulings of the international High Representative was "nonsense", he said. Dodik said he had "learned to deal with more difficult things" and called on the crowd in Republika Srpska's de facto capital to "be cheerful". The verdict was the culmination of a long-running conflict between Dodik and the international High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina, Christian Schmidt. Schmidt is still the supreme authority in Bosnia, 30 years on from the Dayton Agreement which ended the Bosnian War of the 1990s. The high representative has the power to impose or annul laws – and sack officials ranging from judges to political leaders. One former holder of the post, Paddy Ashdown, the former leader of the UK's Liberal Democrats, sacked almost 60 Bosnian-Serb officials in a single day in 2004, in a crackdown on their protection of war criminals. But the high representative's powers have been used much more sparingly in subsequent years, as Bosnia's international supporters stepped back in the hope that local leaders would work together to create a viable and prosperous country. The strategy has not been a success. Ethno-nationalist leaders remain entrenched in a country which is divided into two "entities" – the majority-Serb Republika Srpska and the Federation, where the population are mostly Bosniaks and Croats. The central government is weak – and there is little incentive for parties to cooperate. Instead, their guiding philosophy is simple and self-interested: divide, rule and profit. As a result, the country is struggling with low wages, a sluggish economy and a constant flow of emigration by talented people seeking a better future elsewhere. "Bosnians of all ethnicities are united by their disdain for their own leaders," says Toby Vogel, co-founder of the Democratisation Policy Council think tank. "They would love not to vote for these guys, but it's structurally almost impossible for cross-community politicians and parties to emerge." Instead, leaders like Dodik get elected, time after time. The leader of the SNSD party has previously served as the Serb representative of the three-person national presidency and first became prime minister of Republika Srpska in 1998. A constant theme of his leadership has been the threat to trigger the secession of the majority-Serb region. Dodik and his government have consistently worked to undermine Bosnia's national institutions, introducing a series of laws to withdraw Republika Srpska from the armed forces, judiciary and tax system. Such efforts eventually pushed the high representative to take action and annul the secessionist legislation. Christian Schmidt warned that a renewal of conflict was possible, but insisted that he would "not sit still while others seek to dismantle [decades] of peace, stability and progress". Dodik apparently viewed that as a challenge. He approved a law declaring that Republika Srpska would no longer recognise Schmidt's rulings. The high representative had already annulled the legislation – and made it a criminal offence to contradict his decisions. That led to the prosecution of the Bosnian-Serb leader – with prosecutors calling for a maximum five-year prison sentence and 10-year ban from holding elected office. Dodik warned he would take "radical measures" if found guilty. His conviction has not brought any fireworks so far. At this point, Dodik is insisting that he will not appeal. Instead, Republika Srpska's government is once again proposing legislation to withdraw from national institutions – including the court which passed the guilty verdict. But Dodik is facing problems beyond Bosnia's borders. The US and UK have imposed sanctions on him and his family for corruption - threatening the unity of Bosnia and Herzegovina - and connections with Russia. Toby Vogel believes that is more likely to threaten the Bosnian-Serb leader than the court conviction. "The conflict with the high representative will intensify," he says. "But Dodik might well be running out of road." "He is running out of cash to pay his bloated administration… and he can no longer raise money on international markets. So, he is in very deep trouble indeed." None of this will be much comfort to the long-suffering people of Bosnia and Herzegovina. They are still enduring the interminable wait for the prosperity promised by ethno-nationalists like Dodik. This latest court battle shows how distant that prospect remains.
Yahoo
26-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Bosnia Serb leader Dodik found guilty of defying peace envoy
Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik was found guilty Wednesday in a landmark trial for defying rulings made by an international envoy charged with overseeing the country's peace accords. The case has been widely seen as a potential test of the Balkan nation's weak central government after the 65-year old head of the Bosnian Serb region flouted the country's peace deal and court system. "The court sentenced the accused Milorad Dodik to one year of imprisonment, as well as a security measure of banning him from performing the duties of the president of Republika Srpska for six years, from the date the verdict becomes final," the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina said in a statement. Dodik immediatly denounced the verdict at a rally in Banja Luka -- the capital of Republika Srpska (RS), the Bosnian Serb part of Bosnia. "We must be cheerful, I am sentenced to one year for their crap and their jail," he told the crowd, flanked by officials from the RS. "They say I am guilty. And now people here will tell you why I am not guilty," Dodik has been convicted for refusing to comply with rulings handed down by Bosnia's High Representative, Christian Schmidt, the international envoy who oversees the 1995 Dayton accords. - A constant critic- Dodik, president of Republika Srpska (RS), pushed through two laws in 2023 previously annulled by Schmidt. The legislation refused to recognise decisions made by the high representative and Bosnia's constitutional court in the Republika Srpska (RS). Under the peace deal which ended Bosnia's 1992-1995 war, the country was split into two autonomous halves -- a Muslim-Croat federation and the Serb-dominated RS. The two are connected by a weak central government, under supervision of an international high representative. The country's intercommunal war, which claimed almost 100,000 lives, was ended by the signing of the Dayton peace agreement. Dodik has regularly criticised Bosnia's institutions and has threatened to secede from the state. Prosecutors had earlier called for a jail term of nearly five years and a 10-year ban on holding public office. - 'Decisive battle' - Dodik has the right to appeal the verdict. Questions remain over whether Dodik will recognise the court's verdict or if Schmidt could take a harder line against the Bosnian Serb leader for failing to recognise the ruling. The international envoy holds vast powers, including the ability to effectively fire political leaders and strip them of power. Schmidt on Tuesday sought to reassure the public. "The international community remains firmly committed to peace and stability in this region. Bosnia and Herzegovina is not negotiable," said the envoy after a meeting in Sarajevo. Dodik, 65, has repeatedly denounced the proceedings as a US-backed witch hunt aiming to "eliminate him from political life". He has warned that if found guilty he would begin undoing reforms adopted after the war to strengthen the central state -- including targeting the army, customs, taxes and law enforcement in RS. Dodik -- a Kremlin ally -- has held sway over RS for years and has been sanctioned by Washington in 2017 and 2022 for his separatist policies in Bosnia. Nearly a third of Bosnia's 3.5 million people live in Republika Srpska, whose territory makes up nearly half the Balkan country. ljv-ds/jj
