Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik will on Wednesday hear the verdict of a landmark trial brought over his defiance of the envoy who oversees the peace accords that ended the country’s 1990s war.
The case could become a test of the Balkan nation’s weak central government after the 65-year old head of the Bosnian Serb region was accused of openly flouting the country’s peace deal and court system.
The president of the Republika Srpska Bosnian Serb statelet has called on supporters to join a gathering in its main city, Banja Luka, when the verdict is read.
“This is a decisive battle for our rights,” he told a crowd of several thousand people there Tuesday when he pledged to “preserve peace”.
Dodik is charged with refusing to comply with rulings handed down by Bosnia’s High Representative, Christian Schmidt, the international envoy who oversees the 1995 Dayton accords.
Dodik, president of the Bosnian Serb statelet of Republika Srpska (RS), pushed through two laws in 2023 previously annulled by Schmidt.
The legislation refused to recognise decisions made by the high representative and Bosnia’s constitutional court in the statelet.
Under the peace deal which ended Bosnia’s 1992-1995 war, the country was split into two highly-autonomous halves — a Muslim-Croat federation and the Serb-dominated RS.
The two are connected by a weak central government, under supervision of an international high representative.
The country’s intercommunal war, which claimed almost 100,000 lives, was ended by the signing of the Dayton peace agreement.
Dodik has regularly criticised Bosnia’s institutions and has threatened to secede from the state.
Prosecutors have demanded a jail sentence of nearly five years and a 10-year ban on holding public office.
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‘Decisive battle’
Dodik is not expected to be in court for the verdict and will have the right to appeal.
Questions remain over whether Dodik will recognise the court’s verdict or if Schmidt could take a harder line against the Bosnian Serb leader for failing to recognise the ruling.
The international envoy holds vast powers, including the ability to effectively fire political leaders and strip them of power.
Schmidt on Tuesday sought to reassure the public.
“The international community remains firmly committed to peace and stability in this region. Bosnia and Herzegovina is not negotiable,” said the envoy after a meeting in Sarajevo.
Dodik, 65, has repeatedly denounced the proceedings as a US-backed witch hunt aiming to “eliminate him from political life”.
He has warned that if found guilty he would begin undoing reforms adopted after the war to strengthen the central state — including targeting the army, customs, taxes and law enforcement in RS.
Dodik — a Kremlin ally — has held sway over RS for years and has been sanctioned by Washington in 2017 and 2022 for his separatist policies in Bosnia.
Nearly a third of Bosnia’s 3.5 million people live in Republika Srpska, whose territory makes up nearly half the Balkan country.
