Yesterday, the defense of the President of Republika Srpska, Milorad Dodik, filed an appeal with the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which had rejected the transfer of the trial to the competent court in Banja Luka, stated Dodik’s attorney Goran Bubić.
Bubić explained that the appeal includes a procedural objection, which, among other things, concerns the timeliness of the proposal.
“We have emphasized four groups of statements that affect the independence and impartiality of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina,” said Bubić.
One of the objections concerns the timeliness of the proposal.
“We believe that the main trial has not been scheduled at all. We referred to the practice. A request is timely if it is submitted before the start of the trial, and the law defines the beginning of the trial by reading the indictment,” emphasized Bubić.
Simultaneously with the appeal, another proposal for delegation of jurisdiction has been submitted, but for different reasons than those in the current proposals.
“The current proposal concerns the statements of Christian Schmidt, statements of ambassadors from the United States and the United Kingdom, and these three statements concern interference in the independence of the court. The fourth statement is the statement of the president of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, who expressed negative opinions about the president of Republika Srpska,” emphasized Bubić.
He stated that the new proposal concerns the impartial conduct of the court.
“So far, we have twice submitted requests for the exclusion of judges for preliminary hearings. However, this request does not concern the impartiality of the acting judge, possibly judges who could come into the case in the future in subsequent phases and on different grounds, concerning all judges of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It relates to statements made by the president over the last 11 or 12 years regarding the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and his political platform has been that these are not constitutional categories, and there has been a continuous proposal to abolish the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina,” said Bubić.
He stated that an atmosphere has been created that, according to the defense’s opinion, builds a hostile attitude toward the president of Republika Srpska, and there can be talk of potentially vindictive possibilities.
“The defense believes that this is precisely a potentially unbearable atmosphere, potentially vindictive, which has been created due to the political activities of the president over the last ten or so years regarding the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which calls into question the impartiality of the judges. We have highlighted this as a separate reason for the delegation of jurisdiction,” explained Bubić.
The Criminal Extraordinary Panel of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina will decide on the request, and the defense has the right to appeal its decision.
The hearing in the case against Dodik and the acting director of the Official Gazette, Miloš Lukić, accused of disrespecting the decisions of Christian Schmidt, was postponed on December 6 before the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina after the defense’s request to transfer this case to Banja Luka was rejected.
Dodik and Lukić, accused of not respecting the decisions of Christian Schmidt, on October 16 at the hearing in the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, said they did not understand the indictment, after which it was stated that the accused had declared themselves not guilty.
Source: RTRS
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