The warrant means that any police officer who encounters the president of the country's Serb-majority entity of the Republika Srpska must arrest him immediately.
ADVERTISEMENTThe state-level Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina has issued a nationwide arrest warrant for Milorad Dodik and two others, after the President of Bosnia’s Serb-majority entity of the Republika Srpska ignored a state-level one last week.
The other two are the entity's Prime Minister Radovan Višković and National Assembly Speaker Nenad Stevandić. The warrant means that any police officer in the country who encounters them must arrest them immediately.
They are all accused of anti-constitutional conduct. Bosnian media reports that Stevandić has left the country for Serbia over the weekend and remains abroad at this time.
Bosnia's state-level prosecutors issued arrest warrants for the trio last week, which have not been carried out. The country-wide warrant goes out automatically if those sought by the state-level prosecutor's office fail to come in for questioning, as is the case with the three Bosnian Serb officials.
Dodik has not commented yet on the new warrant but has posted on X that the Republika Srpska is taking steps to form its own border police. It is unclear whether this new border police — which would act in addition to the state-level border control agency — would be placed along the administrative line between the entities.
The 1995 Dayton Peace Agreement, parts of which act as the country's constitution, have divided Bosnia into two main administrative units or entities — the Serb-majority Republika Srpska or RS and the Bosniak-Croat Federation of BiH (FBiH) with a state-level umbrella government in the capital Sarajevo.
Dodik, who previously said he does not recognise the country's state-level prosecutor's office, has rejected last week's warrant's validity and any attempts at his arrest and said he will not go to Sarajevo for questioning.
Bosnia's state-level court convicted Dodik in late February of going against the decisions of the country's international peace envoy, Christian Schmidt, which constitutes a criminal act. The verdict is not final, and Dodik can appeal it.
Shortly after, Dodik introduced new laws meant to ban the operation of state-level security and judicial institutions in what comprises about half of the Western Balkan country’s territory.
The decisions have been temporarily suspended by the state-level Constitutional Court.
The European-led international peacekeeping force in Bosnia, EUFOR, has said it was stepping up the number of its troops in response to the tensions.