BANJA LUKA – The General Secretariat of Interpol rejected a request to issue a red notice (international warrant) for the President of the Bosnian entity Republika Srpska, Milorad Dodik and the Speaker of the National Assembly of Republika Srpska, Nenad Stevandić. This has been confirmed for Radio Free Europe by the Court of BiH.
Bosnia’s top court asked Interpol to issue an international warrant for Dodik and Stevandić after they travelled to Israel and Serbia, respectively, in spite of the central arrest warrant issued by BiH for them, as well as for the Prime Minister of RS, Radovan Višković. Meanwhile, Dodik also visited Russia to meet with Vladimir Putin.
Dodik, Višković, and Stevandić are suspected of the criminal offense of undermining constitutional order.
On Wednesday evening, Milorad Dodik wrote on X that the President of Serbia Aleksandar Vučić informed him that he had received a notification from Interpol’s Directorate stating that Serbia’s appeal had been accepted, and that Interpol rejected the request of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina to issue a red notice for him and Stevandić.
The President of RS thanked Vučić for, as he stated, “his support and clear and principled communication with Interpol”. He also thanked the Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, as well as the “presidents of all other countries that submitted appeals, understanding the political background of the judicial persecution I am exposed to”.
On 27 March, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior of Serbia Ivica Dačić stated that Interpol Belgrade had sent a protest note to the General Secretariat of Interpol, as the requests for issuing international warrants violate Article 3 of Interpol’s Constitution, which stipulates that “It is strictly forbidden for the Organization to undertake any intervention or activities of a political, military, religious or racial character”.
Milorad Dodik was sentenced by the Court of BiH on 26 February to one year in prison and six years of political disqualification for failing to comply with decisions of the High Representative.
In a reaction to the verdict, the National Assembly of RS adopted a series of controversial laws, including a draft of a new constitution of the entity, as well as the Law on non-application of laws and prohibition of activities of “non-constitutional institutions of BiH”, which stipulated that laws on the Court and Prosecutor’s Office of BiH, State Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA), and the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Office of BiH (HJCP) would not be applied or executed on the territory of Republika Srpska