RS vs. the State: Judiciary Powerless Against Dodik and Company, Whom the BiH Court Claims to Respect Restraining Orders

By Amra Vrabac

The Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, in the period from March until the appearance of the then-president of the RS entity, Milorad Dodik, before the Court of BiH (July 4), faced various obstructions in its work.

When the National Assembly of the RS, at the end of February this year, passed a series of unconstitutional laws prohibiting the work of the Court of BiH, the BiH Prosecutor's Office, the HJPC, and SIPA in the territory of the RS, and the leadership of the RS entity called on Serbs to leave these institutions, several employees from these institutions heeded that call. Biographies of judges and prosecutors then disappeared from the websites of the Court and Prosecutor's Office and have not been restored to this day. Although these judicial institutions justify this by system upgrades, no changes are visible on those websites for now.

In the period from March to July, decisions of the Court of BiH were not respected by the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the RS either. According to Patria's information, some police stations of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the RS returned suspects who were under restraining orders and had an obligation to report to the police station, under the pretext of "not acting on the decisions of the Court of BiH."

Such a case was recorded in the Trebinje Police Administration, about which the Court of BiH was informed at one of the public hearings. Also, in mid-March, the Court of BiH faced refusal to receive detainees in the territory of the RS, specifically at the Trebinje Penitentiary, citing "lack of space," "renovation of premises," "a fax machine that is not working"...

The Court of BiH did not respond to Patria's inquiry about the case from the Trebinje Police Administration, but they readily answered the question about the case of Dodik, Stevandić, and Višković, who are also under restraining orders, meaning they are required to report to a police station designated by the Court of BiH every 14 days.

"When imposing a restraining order – an order for a person to periodically report to a designated state authority, as per Article 126.a paragraph 1, point d) of the Law on Criminal Procedure of Bosnia and Herzegovina (ZKPBiH), the Court, based on Article 126.c paragraph 5 of ZKPBiH, designates the state authority to which the suspects must report, and which authority, in accordance with Article 126.f paragraph 1 of ZKPBiH, is obliged to submit a report on the implementation of the imposed measure upon the Court's request.

Therefore, based on the above-mentioned legal provisions, in the case pending before this Court against suspects Milorad Dodik, Nenad Stevandić, and Radovan Višković, the Court of BiH designated the competent Police Stations to which they must report, and obtained reports on the suspects' reporting in the past period, which indicate that they respected the imposed restraining orders and regularly reported at the times determined by this Court," the Court of BiH responded to Patria's inquiry.

Patria has confirmed that during the same period, March-July, while the attack on the constitutional order was ongoing and before Milorad Dodik, and then Radovan Višković and Nenad Stevandić, appeared before the Court of BiH, a number of suspects living in the RS territory refused summonses for trials before the Court of BiH.

Regarding the attack on the constitutional order, the BiH Prosecutor's Office has not yet made a final prosecutorial decision, meaning no indictment has been filed against Dodik and others. The BiH Prosecutor's Office refuses to provide information on how many individuals are suspected of attacking the constitutional order.