Goran Bubić, the lawyer for the President of Republika Srpska, Milorad Dodik, stated in the RTRS morning program that Christian Schmidt should be the first among the witnesses in the trial against President Dodik, as everything started with his arrival. He believes that Schmidt’s appearance before the Court of BiH is in his interest, to show respect for the country and its judiciary.
“In that regard, he indeed needs to testify. The prosecution has already formally opposed Schmidt’s testimony. From the defense’s perspective, we need to defend ourselves, and we would do so by having Schmidt testify,” Bubić stated, adding that the hearing set for the end of June could begin with the witness testimonies.
Bubić further noted that yesterday’s hearing demonstrated what the public has seen since the beginning of this process.
“The indictment includes about 59 documents, but in essence, only nine documents are relevant. We have two pieces of evidence – one that exists and one that does not. Something that does not exist cannot be offered as evidence. The relevant document is the original, and it should be presented as evidence, not translated by the OHR today,” Bubić added.
He pointed out that the BiH Prosecution is persistently trying to push the narrative around Annex 10 of the Dayton Peace Agreement, which is not relevant.
“We are facing the most serious legal procedure, which is a criminal procedure, and to be able to defend ourselves, we need to know what we are defending against. Offering newspaper pages as evidence, which the prosecution did yesterday, is not relevant,” Bubić emphasized.
The next hearing is scheduled for May 22, and the defense is set to begin presenting its evidence and hearing witnesses on June 5 and 19. The defense maintains that it will prove that Christian Schmidt was illegally appointed as the High Representative, adding that he has been nominated as their key witness.
Source: RTRS
