Bosnia court issues international arrest warrant for Serb leader Milorad Dodik

Defying an internal arrest warrant, he crossed into neighboring Serbia earlier this week then traveled to Israel for an antisemitism conference in Jerusalem on Thursday.

 PRESIDENT OF Republika Srpska Milorad Dodik looks on as Bosnian Serbs protest against the UN resolution on the genocide in Srebrenica in Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina, in April. (photo credit: Amel Emric/Reuters)
PRESIDENT OF Republika Srpska Milorad Dodik looks on as Bosnian Serbs protest against the UN resolution on the genocide in Srebrenica in Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina, in April.
(photo credit: Amel Emric/Reuters)

A court in Bosnia has issued an international arrest warrant for Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik who is accused of attacking the constitutional order and has gone abroad in defiance, the court said on Thursday.

Dodik, the president of Bosnia's Serb Republic region, has triggered the gravest crisis since a 1990s war after being sentenced for a year in jail and banned from politics for six years over ignoring rulings by an international peace envoy.

Dodik, the pro-Russian long-time advocate of secession from Bosnia, had initiated legislation barring the state judiciary and police from operating in the Serb region, but Bosnia's constitutional court temporarily suspended that.

Dodik traveled to Israel this week

Defying an internal arrest warrant, he crossed into neighboring Serbia earlier this week then traveled to Israel for an antisemitism conference in Jerusalem on Thursday.

Bosnia's state court said an international warrant was also issued for Nenad Stevandic, speaker of the Serb Republic parliament who had traveled to Serbia though is now back in Bosnia. The warrants are with the international police Interpol, the court said in a statement.

 Milorad Dodik with Russian president Vladimir Putin, May 23, 2023. (credit: KREMLIN / KREMLIN.RU)
Milorad Dodik with Russian president Vladimir Putin, May 23, 2023. (credit: KREMLIN / KREMLIN.RU)

Dodik says the accusations against him are meaningless as they are politically motivated.