New charge of attack on the constitutional order assigned to a prosecutor who dropped a previous investigation against Dodik and others

(Patria) - The Prosecutor's Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina has assigned the case regarding the charge of attack on the constitutional order to prosecutor Vedrana Jovičić, formerly Mijović, against whom a criminal complaint has already been filed for abuse of office or authority because in a previous investigation for the same criminal offense, she allegedly protected Milorad Dodik, Radovan Višković, and Nenad Stevandić from criminal proceedings.

The State Prosecutor's Office confirmed to Detektor that the case is being processed and that the public will be informed once a prosecutorial decision is made.

“The case has been assigned to prosecutor Jovičić Vedrana through the automatic case allocation system,” the BiH Prosecutor's Office stated in its response.

This case concerns a criminal complaint for an attack on the constitutional order filed against several individuals by state parliamentarians, after Republika Srpska concluded a lobbying contract with the Canadian company “Dickens & Madson (Canada) Inc.”, represented by Ari Ben-Menashe. The contract was signed on behalf of Mladen Filipović, RS representative in Austria, as envoy of Milorad Dodik, former president of RS, who was finally convicted by the BiH Court for non-compliance with the High Representative's decisions. The ultimate goal of this lobbying contract, according to the FARA registry, is the independence of Republika Srpska, for which diplomatic support from the United States of America, the European Union, and Saudi Arabia is necessary.

Several state parliamentarians have filed a criminal complaint for an attack on the constitutional order with the BiH Prosecutor's Office against Filipović, Milorad Dodik, Nenad Stevandić, Radovan Višković, and other individuals. A few days ago, they requested information on the actions taken regarding this complaint, Albin Muslić, one of the complainants, told Detektor.

“We believe these are contracts that have an attack on the constitutional order of BiH as their subject matter, which is one of the most serious criminal offenses against the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina,” Muslić said.

He believes that the Prosecutor's Office should launch an investigation into everything stated in the criminal complaint.

“So that the public in our country can become acquainted with the activities carried out regarding the lobbying contracts and to prevent any further actions by sanctioning those responsible,” said Muslić, an SDP MP in the House of Representatives of the BiH Parliament.

A source from the judiciary told Detektor that “assigning the case to prosecutor Jovičić raises reasonable doubt about independent and impartial proceedings and undermines the integrity of the work of the BiH Prosecutor's Office as a whole.”

“In the practice of the Prosecutor's Office, it often happens that cases of this nature end up with prosecutor Jovičić, who, among other things, has already been reported for her actions in such cases, which all raises doubts about impartiality,” the Detektor source stated.

The Prosecutor's Office conducted a previous investigation against Dodik, Radovan Višković, and Nenad Stevandić for an attack on the constitutional order from December 2024, after a law prohibiting the operation of the state Court and Prosecutor's Office, the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council (HJPC), and the Agency for Investigations and Protection (SIPA) in the territory of Republika Srpska was passed at a special session of the National Assembly of Republika Srpska, among other things.

The Prosecutor's Office dropped this investigation, stating that there was insufficient evidence of an attack on the constitutional order, that they could not establish intent, nor that the laws adopted by the National Assembly of RS, which initiated the investigation, had produced consequences. Detektor wrote at the time that an analysis of the order to drop the investigation showed that prosecutors had neglected key facts, threats to state institutions, and the use of armed entity police against state bodies.

In November 2025, the State Prosecutor's Office formed a case against Milanko Kajganić, Chief State Prosecutor, and Vedrana Mijović, state prosecutor, based on a complaint alleging that they protected Višković, Dodik, and Stevandić in the case against them. In February of this year, this complaint was not discussed at the prosecutors' collegium. By the time of publication, the Prosecutor's Office had not responded to inquiries regarding this case.

The Office of the Disciplinary Prosecutor of the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council has formed a case against the Chief State Prosecutor and Mijović. A decision has not yet been made, they confirmed to Detektor on April 10.

“I can only say that I act professionally in every case assigned to me,” prosecutor Jovičić told a Detektor journalist.

Enver Išerić, a legal expert, told Detektor that the decision to not pursue an investigation against Dodik, Višković, and Stevandić for the criminal offense of attack on the constitutional order in the previous case should have been a red flag for the Chief Prosecutor, the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council of Bosnia and Herzegovina (HJPC BiH), and all state bodies, the Presidency, the Parliamentary Assembly, and the Council of Ministers of BiH.

He believes that in this case, it was a matter of “favoritism” towards the perpetrators of the criminal offense by the prosecutor in charge of the case.

“To make matters worse and more dramatic, the new case concerning the criminal offense of attack on the constitutional order has again, according to media reports, been assigned to the same prosecutor. We can justifiably question whether the automatic case allocation system is functioning at all. I have warned on several occasions that the BiH Prosecutor's Office is captured. But when it comes to prosecutorial decisions, the Chief Prosecutor assures us that it is the decision of the individual prosecutor and that he bears no responsibility for it,” says Išerić.

Išerić reminds that the Chief Prosecutor issued a General Binding Instruction on the review and control of prosecutorial decisions in the BiH Prosecutor's Office dated December 31, 2024, which, according to him, completely stripped prosecutors of their freedom and independence.

“This instruction stipulates that the review and control of prosecutorial decisions are carried out by supervisors, namely the head of the department, heads of divisions, and the Chief Prosecutor. This instruction, which has no legal basis for its adoption, effectively blocks the efficiency of the Prosecutor's Office's work, and all prosecutorial decisions depend, not on the acting prosecutor, but ultimately on the Chief Prosecutor. This deprives prosecutors of their independence in their work, which is stipulated by law,” Išerić emphasizes.

Therefore, he believes, the HJPC should react and abolish the aforementioned illegal instruction, thereby making the Prosecutor's Office more efficient and prosecutors free in making prosecutorial decisions.

The prosecutor acting in the case of the attack on the constitutional order, related to the conclusion of lobbying contracts by the Government of Republika Srpska with the Canadian company “Dickens & Madson” – in which the independence of this entity is stated as the ultimate goal – was Ćazim Hasanspahić, but he was, as Detektor previously reported, transferred by the decision of Milanko Kajganić, Chief Prosecutor of the BiH Prosecutor's Office, from the Department for Terrorism to the Department for Organized Crime, after being questioned regarding the criminal complaint filed by Džermin Pašić against Kajganić and prosecutor Mijović (now Jovičić) for abuse of office.

By Kajganić's decision, Pašić, who was previously one of the managers in the Special Department for Organized Crime, Economic Crime, and Corruption and his deputy, was also transferred to the Special Department for War Crimes of the BiH Prosecutor's Office, he confirmed earlier to Detektor, and stated that in the past period he had been questioned several times regarding the criminal complaint he filed against his superior.

Jovičić declined to comment on Pašić's complaint.

Elvira Stanojlović, a prosecutor at the BiH Prosecutor's Office who acted on Pašić's complaint against Chief Prosecutor Kajganić, was also transferred to another department by his decision. Kajganić stated that the transfer decision was necessary to “direct the Prosecutor's Office's capacities towards the most important matters currently in progress, namely organized crime.”

“I did not dismiss anyone; rather, in order to strengthen the Department for Organized Crime, I reassigned two prosecutors to a department within the division. In corruption cases, all prosecutors – there are now four remaining – had or have cases related to complaints filed against me. I have never influenced, nor can I influence, who gets which case. When I reassigned these two prosecutors, all of their cases were assigned to other prosecutors in the Department for Corruption via CMS. And they were assigned organized crime cases via CMS,” Kajganić said in response to Detektor journalists' questions earlier.