The Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) has delivered a first-instance verdict sentencing Milorad Dodik, President of Republika Srpska (RS), to one year in prison and barring him from holding office for six years for refusing to implement decisions issued by High Representative for BiH Christian Schmidt.
Miloš Lukić, Acting Director of the Official Gazette of Republika Srpska, who was charged with the same crime, was acquitted.
Unlike during the trial, no gathering was held at the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina in support of Dodik and Lukić when the first-instance verdict was announced. Instead, a rally took place in Banja Luka.
In June 2023, the National Assembly of Republika Srpska (NSRS) passed two laws aimed at blocking the implementation of decisions of the BiH Constitutional Court. Despite Schmidt’s ruling preventing them from taking effect, Dodik and Lukić signed a decree and published the laws in the Official Gazette of Republika Srpska.
During the trial, the Prosecutor’s Office of BiH presented as evidence Schmidt’s decision blocking the Law on Non-Implementation of BiH Constitutional Court Decisions, as well as his decision preventing the enactment of the Law Amending the Law on the Publication of Laws and Other Regulations of Republika Srpska, dated July 1, 2023. That same day, the Office of the High Representative (OHR) announced that failure to comply with the High Representative’s decisions had been classified as a criminal offense under the BiH Criminal Code.
Dodik and Lukić became the first individuals to be indicted by the Prosecutor’s Office of BiH for disregarding the High Representative’s decisions.
If the first-instance verdict is upheld and Dodik receives a one-year prison sentence, he could avoid serving time by having it commuted to a fine. This option is available to individuals sentenced to up to one year in prison.
Investigation against Dodik
Dodik is currently being investigated by the Prosecutor’s Office of BiH regarding a villa located in Dedinje, Belgrade, which he bought in 2007 during his tenure as Prime Minister of Republika Srpska. The three-story villa covers an area of 342 square meters and features a yard and a garage, with a value in the millions. Two years later, the Centre for Investigative Reporting (CIN) disclosed that although Dodik had paid for the villa, he secured a loan for its purchase only eight months later.
According to available documents, the villa was built by Koling, a Belgrade-based company. After the company stopped making loan payments, Komercijalna Banka in Belgrade took over the property and later put it up for sale. Dodik bought the villa in May 2007 for EUR 850,000. According to several real estate agents, the market value of the villa at that time amounted to between €1.2 and €1.5 million, depending on how well it was equipped.
When asked by CIN journalists how the bank could sell the villa below market value, Goran Milićević, then Marketing Director of Komercijalna Banka in Belgrade, explained that the bank had the right to do so to protect its investment.
In his initial interview with journalists in July 2009, Milićević stated that Dodik had made the highest offer and had “offered to pay in cash”, which the bank accepted. However, in a follow-up phone call a few days later, he said he “couldn’t quite remember whether Dodik’s offer was actually in cash”.
In July 2009, during a session of the National Assembly of Republika Srpska, Dodik acknowledged owning a villa in Belgrade but stated that it was mortgaged. He claimed to have rented it to a foreign mission and was using the rental income to repay the loan.
CIN journalists discovered that the villa was mortgaged for EUR 750,767. However, the timing of the loan approval, mortgage registration, and ownership transfer did not align.
Dodik purchased the villa in May 2007, but his ownership registration was not approved until early November of that year. To have the property officially registered in his name, he had to pay EUR 850,000 to Komercijalna Banka, which Milićević confirmed to journalists: “It is standard practice that the full purchase price must be paid before ownership rights can be transferred”.
The United States and the United Kingdom had previously sanctioned Dodik, along with his family and associates, for undermining the legitimacy and functioning of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
