Court of BiH provides further clarification: How Milorad Dodik is completely banned from political activity

(Patria) - Given the continuous media inquiries regarding the security measure and legal consequences of the conviction, which are consequently linked to the finality of the first-instance verdict in the case against the accused Milorad Dodik, who was found guilty and sentenced to a prison term of 1 (one) year, and to whom a security measure prohibiting him from performing the duties of the President of Republika Srpska for a period of 6 (six) years was imposed, the Court of BiH pointed out the following:

"The Court reminds that by confirming the first-instance verdict, the decision of the first-instance court regarding the security measure, which prohibits the accused from performing the duties of the President of Republika Srpska for a period of six (6) years, has been confirmed. In addition to the above, due to the finality of the verdict, legal consequences of the conviction from Article 203.a, paragraphs 5, points a), c), and d) of the Criminal Code of BiH will also apply to him.

Security measures and legal consequences of conviction are different in nature, given that a security measure represents a criminal law sanction and is closely linked to the incriminated actions, i.e., in this specific case, the duty that the accused Milorad Dodik held at the time of undertaking the incriminated actions – President of Republika Srpska. For this reason, the first-instance court, in accordance with Article 203.a, paragraph 4, in conjunction with Article 73 of the Criminal Code of BiH, imposed a security measure prohibiting him from performing such duties for a period of six (6) years, which is legally binding based on the decision of the appellate panel.

On the other hand, the legal consequences of conviction, according to Article 5 of the Criminal Code of BiH, are not criminal law sanctions, which is why they are not determined, imposed, or entered into the verdict, as they occur automatically, i.e., by force of law. It is precisely this nature that separates them from criminal law sanctions, such as, for example, a security measure, which must be imposed by a verdict to be applied.

Therefore, the Court points out that in this specific case, as clearly follows from the operative part of the confirmed first-instance verdict, the accused was subjected to a security measure that is directly linked to the duty within which he undertook the incriminated actions from Article 203.a, paragraph 1 of the Criminal Code of BiH, while the legal consequences of the conviction, which are specifically contained in Article 203.a, paragraph 5, points a), c), and d) of the Criminal Code of BiH, will occur by force of law and will obviously encompass a broader aspect of prohibition of activity than that contained in the security measure itself," the Court of BiH announced.