The parliament of Bosnia & Herzegovina’s Republika Srpska adopted on February 26 a document rejecting the authority of key state-level institutions and calling the guilty verdict issued by a state-level court to the entity’s President Milorad Dodik a "state coup".

The document was adopted several hours after the court sentenced Dodik to one year in prison and banned him from holding the presidential post in the entity for six years. According to legal experts, this ban extends to all state positions in Bosnia.

The court ruling adds to tensions within Bosnia, where Dodik has already threatened that Republika Srpska, the country’s Serb entity, will secede in case of a guilty verdict.

“The National Assembly of Republika Srpska notes that the fact that the Court of BiH rendered the verdict based on the decision of the unelected foreigner [high representative] Christian Schmidt, and not on the basis of the law adopted by the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH, thus committing an act of coup d'état and complete collapse of the constitutional order of BiH, and the National Assembly rejects and does not accept any decision of Christian Schmidt,” the parliament’s document reads.

“The National Assembly of Republika Srpska considers null and void all laws and decisions of bodies that are not defined by the Constitution of BiH, primarily the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council, the Prosecutor's Office of BiH, the Court of BiH and the State Investigation and Protection Agency,” the parliament decided.

It added that the verdict contradicts the constitution and urged Republika Srpska's prosecution to charge all prosecutors and judges who participated in the trial against Dodik. 

Lawmakers in the entity want Bosnian state bodies, namely the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council, the Prosecutor's Office and the State Investigation and Protection Agency, banned from operating within Republika Srpska. 

Russia threatens negative consequences

Russian foreign ministry said in a statement that Dodik’s conviction will have negative consequences for the whole region.

“Russia believes it is necessary to warn foreign participants in the post-conflict settlement process in Bosnia & Herzegovina (BiH), regional states and the entire international community: if a guilty verdict is passed, there will inevitably be disastrous consequences for the situation in Bosnia & Herzegovina and the Balkans as a whole,” the statement noted.

“The accusations brought against the legitimately elected president of the Republika Srpska, and in fact against the entire Serbian people, are based on the provisions of the pseudo-law arbitrarily imposed on sovereign Bosnia & Herzegovina by the self-appointed High Representative Christian Schmidt and are clearly outside the legal framework,” it added.

Russia called the trial a parody of justice and a “blatant mockery of the foundations of the rule of law”.

“The persecution of Milorad Dodik is purely political in nature, inspired by the West, which, through the hands of its puppets in the Bosnia and Herzegovina justice system, hopes to remove from the political scene the patriotic forces of the Republika Srpska, which are resisting Euro-Atlantic neocolonialism,” the statement noted.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic called a session of the security council and said this was the biggest crisis in Bosnia since the end of the 1992-1995 Bosnian war.

“This crisis is the result of a general attack by Sarajevo and the West on Republika Srpska, with the aim of redefining and disappearing it. We call for unity and unity of the entire Serbian people and all political parties in both Republika Srpska and Serbia," Serbian Interior Minister Ivica Dacic said after the session as quoted by N1.

Following the council’s session, Vucic arrived in Banja Luka and met with Dodik. He said at a press briefing that the verdict was against the Serbian people.

"I came with just two requests to Dodik. I conveyed to him the conclusions of our National Security Council, and we shall have a session of the parliament in the coming month to which the president of Republika Srpska will be invited to speak. The first is to ask President Dodik and the RS leadership to once again invite all representatives of the authorities and political actors in BiH, as well as representatives of the EU and the US, the Russian Federation and China to talks,” Vucic said.

He added he knew that Dodik would be sentenced and had asked the Bosnian authorities not to do so. Vucic said that Serbia will always support Republika Srpska.

Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic also commented on the verdict, pointing out that it was not final.

“I think that the ball should be dropped, that political and legal solutions should be found that make BiH functional, in which all three peoples must be equal, in which political responsibility for the functionality of the country should be taken over by political institutions and parties that gain confidence in the elections,” Plenkovic said as quoted by N1.

Montenegro’s parliament speaker Andrija Mandic commented that the verdict brings instability to Bosnia.