Dodik to lose diplomatic passport

(Patria) - Milorad Dodik will have his diplomatic passport revoked, confirmed the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Elmedin Konaković, for Radio Free Europe (RSE).

Dodik must return the passport within 15 days. If he fails to meet this deadline, the MFA of BiH will notify the BiH Border Police and the diplomatic-consular network that it has been annulled.

This decision comes a day after Dodik's mandate officially ended, after the Court of BiH rejected the appeal of his lawyer against the decision of the Central Election Commission (CEC) of BiH, which stripped him of his mandate for this position. The Court's decision is final.

According to the Election Law of BiH, the CEC of BiH is to call early elections for the president of Republika Srpska, which must be held within 90 days. The mandate of the president of Republika Srpska elected in this way would last until the General Elections planned for October next year.

Previously, the CEC of BiH made a decision to revoke Dodik's mandate, a few days after the Court of BiH announced in early August that he had been finally convicted to one year in prison and a six-year ban from holding public office in BiH for non-compliance with the decisions of the High Representative.

Dodik rejected both the final verdict of the Court of BiH and the decision of the CEC of BiH, and announced the holding of a referendum in the smaller BiH entity for the end of September.

Dodik's legal team also requested from the Constitutional Court of BiH a temporary measure prohibiting the execution of the verdict until the final decision of the Constitutional Court, even though Dodik does not publicly recognize this court.

Dodik's legal team previously announced that addressing the Constitutional Court is a prerequisite for addressing the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

According to the final verdict of the Court of BiH, Dodik was convicted for signing the publication of laws, which were previously annulled by the High Representative Christian Schmidt, on the non-implementation of decisions of the Constitutional Court and the Office of the High Representative in the territory of Republika Srpska.

Earlier, Dodik's legal team requested from the Court of BiH to convert the one-year prison sentence into a fine, which is a possibility provided for by the Criminal Code of BiH. The Court of BiH accepted this request.

In this way, Dodik will pay approximately 36,500 KM for one year, or 100 KM per day in prison.