President of Republika Srpska Milorad Dodik announced that he will appear before the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina on Wednesday, January 29, where proceedings against him and acting director of the Official Gazette of Srpska, Miloš Lukić, will resume.
The hearing follows a long pause due to Dodik’s recovery from surgery on his stomach and esophagus, which he underwent in Belgrade in early December last year.
Dodik’s attorney, Goran Bubić, earlier stated that a request had been submitted to the Court of BiH to restart the trial. Dodik explained that the law stipulates that if a hearing is not held for more than a month, one party can request the process to begin anew.
- “We are invoking this legal provision, which is entirely in accordance with the law. We are not asking for the law to be violated. It is up to the Court, but if the Court does not allow it, then it is the one violating procedures. They can continue with their farce, but it’s still just a farce,” Dodik stated in an interview for Tanjug TV.
The indictment alleges that Dodik and Lukić are guilty of “disrespecting the decisions of Christian Schmidt.”
Dodik clarified that the charges against him stem from Schmidt’s dissatisfaction with his actions and statements.
- “One day, Schmidt imposed a decision stating that anyone who disrespects the decisions of the high representative—meaning Schmidt and his actions in BiH—can be taken to court and sentenced to prison. I am now part of that process. Before this, I was constantly accused of being a thief and a criminal, none of which was proven because it does not exist,” Dodik stated.
He also recalled that he has been subjected to four separate financial investigations, scrutinizing everything about him and his family.
- “They have done this four times and failed to find anything to prosecute me for, so they fabricated this case,” Dodik said, reiterating that the Court of BiH is not constitutionally compliant.
Dodik explained that refusing to appear before the court would result in him being placed on an international “red notice,” leading to extradition to BiH even if he were in Serbia.
- “They counted on this, and that’s why I chose to appear in court—to expose this as a farce,” Dodik concluded.
Source: RTRS
