Dodik avoids detention after voluntary appearance in Bosnia's Prosecution

Bosnia and Herzegovina Serb leader Milorad Dodik has avoided suffering in detention after voluntarily submitted to Bosnia's Prosecutor for questioning as suspected of attacking constitutional order Friday.

The Bosnian prosecutor announced that Dodik was questioned in the presence of his defence attorney.

Months earlier, the Bosnian Court had issued a national warrant for Dodik and had ordered a month of detention for him, but he was never captured by authorities.

During a session Friday, the court accepted the prosecution's request to abolish Dodik's detention measure, saying previous reasons for his detention were no longer valid.

The court ordered Dodik to be presented to the justice authorities at times.

The order for mandatory submission could last as long as necessary, or until a new court ruling, the announcement said.

The suspect's “is specifically warned that the detention measure could be determined if it violates obligations from the detention measures”, a joint report by Bosnia and Herzegovina's Court and Prosecutor.

In February, the Bosnian Court sentenced Dodik to one year in prison and prevented him from carrying out the office of Republika Srpska's president for six years.

Dodik was convicted of disrespecting the decisions of top international representative, Christian Schmidt, and signing decrees for implementing laws that Schmidt had previously abolished, reports REL, broadcast Periscope.

These laws were meant to prevent the implementation of decisions by the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and the high representative on the territory of the Bosnian Serb entity, which had earlier abolished laws adopted by the Parliament of Entity concerning the registration of state property in the name of entity or holiday laws.

Bosnia's prosecution had announced that since December 2024, investigations were under way over allegations of assaulting Bosnia's constitutional order.

In March of this year, the court issued arrests for Dodik, Republika Srpska Prime Minister Radovan Viskoviq and Republika Srpska's president of the People's Assembly, Nenad Stevsa, persecuted, as suspected of assaulting constitutional order.

The order was issued on the day when the People's Assembly of Republika Srpska was expected to discuss a draft of the Constitution of Republika Srpska, through which authorities in this entity planned to define it as the state of the Serbian people, to grant the right to self-rule, establish their own army and abolish the Council of Peoples.

Bosnia and Herzegovina's Penal Code envisions sentences of up to five years in prison and the ban on exercising official office for anyone illegally trying to change the constitutional order of Bonja, or to bring down its highest institutions. /Periscope/