A team from Hungary's Counter-Terrorist Centre (TEK) was deployed to Bosnia & Herzegovina in late February with the mission to help Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik escape in the event of a court-ordered arrest, investigative news site VSquare reported on March 7.

Dodik faced charges for refusing to comply with the decisions of the international community's high representative under the Dayton Peace Agreement.

On February 26, a Bosnian court handed down a one-year prison sentence to Dodik and imposed a six-year ban from public life. After the ruling, Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić and Viktor Orban had both called to express their support for the Bosnian Serb leader.

The TEK operation with a staff of 70, deployed in what the government said was a joint exercise and training, was authorised after Dodik's visit to Hungary in February. The operation never occurred, partly because Dodik appealed his conviction, postponing any prison sentence until the final ruling, and because both Croatia and the US were made aware of the plan.

The US warned Hungary that any attempt to abduct Dodik would result in the organisation's exclusion from international cooperation. The State Department welcomed the conviction and strongly condemned any actions that could destabilise the region.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in a tweet said that Dodik's actions are undermining Bosnia's institutions and threatening its security and stability, and he called on US partners in the region to join Washington in "pushing back against this dangerous and destabilising behaviour".

According to VSquare, a few days before the court ruling, Orban visited Dodik with head of TEK János Hajdu, the former bodyguard of the prime minister. After the meeting, Dodik issued a statement saying that Bosnia is finished.

In late February, a Hungarian military plane was refused landing in the country. "I am deeply convinced that the military plane arrived from Hungary to provide some kind of support to Milorad Dodik and the clique gathered around him in the dismantling of Bosnia and Herzegovina," Bosnia's Defence Minister Zukan Helez said. Foreign ministry state secretary Levente Magyar was on board the plane, according to local media.

VSquare reached out to TEK and the US embassy in Hungary but did not get a reply.

Officially, both Hungarian and Republika Srpska authorities maintain that the TEK operation in the country was a joint training exercise.

In related news, Bosnia has formally requested the withdrawal of the Hungarian EUFOR contingent from the European Union's peacekeeping force amid concerns over Budapest's close ties to the Bosnian Serb leader.

Zeljko Komsic, the Bosnian Croat member of Bosnia's tripartite presidency, has sent an official letter to European Council President António Costa calling for the removal of the Hungarian troops, according to regional media reports.

In his letter, Komsic argued that the EUFOR-Althea mission must remain completely neutral and operate strictly within its mandate. He cited the Hungarian government's open support for Dodik as incompatible with this neutrality.

"Dodik has been undermining Bosnia's constitutional and legal order for some time, causing permanent instability in the country and the region due to his separatist ideas and aspirations," Komsic wrote.