Appeals court upholds Bosnian Serb leader's prison sentence
SARAJEVO
FILE - Bosnian Serb President Milorad Dodik speaks after a court sentenced him to one year in prison and banned him from engaging in politics for six years over his separatist actions, during a rally in the Bosnian town of Banja Luka, 240 kms northwest of Sarajevo, Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2025
A Bosnia appeals court said on Aug. 1 it upheld a prison sentence handed to Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik, a conviction that had sparked an unprecedented crisis in the Balkan country.
A Sarajevo court in February sentenced the president of Republika Srpska (RS), the ethnic Serb part of Bosnia, to a year in prison and banned him from holding office for six years, for not complying with rulings by the international envoy overseeing Bosnia's 1995 peace accords.
On Aug. 1, Bosnia's appeals court said in a statement that it had upheld the lower court ruling, adding that "no appeal is allowed."
Dodik's conviction set off a crisis that many observers considered the worst since Bosnia's 1992-95 war.
Dodik rejected the trial as "political" and in response the parliament in the Republika Srpska passed a law prohibiting the central police and judicial authorities from operating in the Serb entity.
Bosnia's constitutional court annulled those laws in May.
Since the end of its war, Bosnia has been split into the Serb Republika Srpska and a Muslim-Croat Federation. Each has its own government and parliament, with only weak central institutions binding the country of 3.5 million people together.
