Prison for genocide deniers: Will Dodik be arrested

The House of Peoples of the Federation of BiH today adopted an Amendment to the Criminal Code of the FBiH, according to which anyone who publicly denies genocide and crimes for which court verdicts exist on the territory of the Federation of BiH will be criminally liable with a prison sentence of three months to three years, reports the BiH news agency Patria

Jasmin Duvnjak, vice-president of the Club of Delegates of the Party of Democratic Action (SDA) in the Federal Parliament, who initiated this procedure in October 2011, said he was happy to have contributed to at least partially restoring the dignity of the victims of aggression against BiH, which has been undermined for years.

- This is the first time that in domestic legislation since gaining independence we have a provision that legally prohibits public denial and questioning of genocide and crimes against humanity – Duvnjak told the Patria agency.

- In this way, protection is provided for all victims who were killed on the territory of BiH. This law has no national affiliation, it affirms a culture of remembrance instead of a culture of forgetting, and I hope it will one day be adopted at the state level as well – said Duvnjak.

The law applies not only to citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina but also to foreign nationals.

Duvanjak previously said that with the application of this law, no one will be able to invoke the suppression of freedom of speech, because it is clear that this is a civilizational response to the challenges of nationalism and chauvinism, regardless of which side they come from, writes the Patria agency.

After the law comes into force, the first to fall under its scope could be the president of the smaller entity, Milorad Dodik, if he were to publicly repeat his denial of genocide on the territory of the FBiH, reports Patria (NAP). The law comes into force eight days after its publication in the Official Gazette.