SARAJEVO: A court in Bosnia on Wednesday sentenced Milorad Dodik, the pro-Russia Bosnian Serb president, to one year in prison and banned him from engaging in politics for six years over his separatist actions.
\nThe landmark ruling by the court in Sarajevo came after a yearlong trial against Dodik on charges that he disobeyed the top international envoy overseeing peace in the Balkan country.
\nThe leader and his lawyers weren\u2019t at the court during the sentencing. Dodik has said that he would disobey any conviction and threatened \u201cradical measures\u201d in response, including eventual secession of the Serb-run entity in Bosnia called Republika Srpska from the rest of the country.
\nDodik has repeatedly called for the separation of the Serb-run half of Bosnia to join it with neighboring Serbia, which prompted the United States and the United Kingdom to impose sanctions against him and his close allies. Dodik is also accused of corruption and pro-Russia policies.
\nDodik\u2019s separatist threats stoked fears in Bosnia, where a 1992-95 war left 100,000 people killed and displaced millions. The US-sponsored Dayton Accords ended the war nearly three decades ago and created two regions, Republika Srpska and the Bosniak-Croat Federation.
\nThe two regions were given wide autonomy, but kept some joint institutions, including the army, top judiciary and tax administration. Bosnia also has a rotating three-member presidency made up of Bosniak, Serb and Croat members.
\nDodik was in the Bosnian Serb administrative capital Banja Luka, where thousands gathered Wednesday in his support.
\n\u201cThey say I am guilty, but now people here will say why I am not guilty,\u201d Dodik told the crowd shortly after the verdict was announced. \u201cThere is no reason to worry. I have learned to deal with tougher situations. It is important that you are here.\u201d
\nIn neighboring Serbia, pro-government media reported that populist President Aleksandar Vucic called an urgent session of the national security council there.
\nDodik is unlikely to be sent to prison, because he enjoys the full support of Vucic, who can provide shelter to him in Belgrade. Dodik is also expected to appeal the conviction.
\nDodik has repeatedly clashed with top international envoy Christian Schmidt and declared his decisions illegal in Republika Srpska. The Dayton peace agreement envisages that the high representative can impose decisions and change laws in the country.
\nThe war in Bosnia erupted when the country\u2019s Serbs rebelled against the country\u2019s independence from the former Yugoslavia and moved to form a mini-state of their own with the aim of uniting it with neighboring Serbia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
SARAJEVO: A court in Bosnia on Wednesday sentenced Milorad Dodik, the pro-Russia Bosnian Serb president, to one year in prison and banned him from engaging in politics for six years over his separatist actions. The landmark ruling by the court in Sarajevo came after a yearlong trial against Dodik on charges that he disobeyed the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":77682,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-77667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77667","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77667"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77667\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77684,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77667\/revisions\/77684"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}