Bosnia issues new nationwide arrest warrant for Milorad Dodik

The Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina has issued a nationwide arrest warrant for Milorad Dodik and two others, after the President of Bosnia’s Serb-dominated Republika Srpska entity 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.

Bosnia’s state-level prosecutors issued arrest warrants for the trio last week, which was has not been carried out.

Dodik has not commented yet on the new warrant but has posted on X that Republika Srpska is taking steps to form its own border police. This will control the border between the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Republika Srpska, the two entities in the country.

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 peacekeeping force in Bosnia, EUFOR, has said it was stepping up the number of its troops in response to the tensions.