SARAJEVO, AUGUST 15 (ONASA-MINA) – Lawyer Alma Čolo and former long-time member of the Democratic Action Party commented on the indictment against the president of Republika Srpska Milorad Dodik and acting Director of the Official Gazette of the RS, Miloš Lukić.
He believes that the indictment is not good enough and will not result in an appropriate punishment.
She warns that Dodik and the newly appointed director, who are accused of not implementing the decisions of the high representative, will receive a significantly lower sentence than if they were convicted for attacking the constitutional order.
“Namely, instead of being charged with the criminal offense of ‘Attack on the constitutional order’ from Article 156 of the CC BiH, Dodik and Lukić were charged with the criminal offense from Article 203a of the CC of BiH ‘Non-execution of the decisions of the High Representative’. For the criminal offense of ‘Attack on the constitutional order’ ‘ is prescribed a prison sentence of at least five years, and for ‘Non-execution of the decisions of the High Representative’ a prison sentence of six months to five years is prescribed,” she said.
However, many lawyers point out that an attack on the constitutional order would be difficult to prove. Through several examples, she explained why she believes that Dodik’s and Lukić’s behavior from the legal point of view is confirmation of the committed criminal act of “Attack on the constitutional order”.
First she asked a few questions, which she later answered.
“Do Milorad Dodik’s actions contain elements of the criminal offense ‘Attack on the constitutional order’, for which the law prescribes a minimum sentence of five years in prison, which means that a sentence of up to 20 years in prison is possible, and for the most serious forms of this crime, long-term prison sentence. Is the adoption of the Law stipulating that the decisions of the Constitutional Court of BiH will not be applied and executed on the territory of Republika Srpska until the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH passes the Law on the Constitutional Court of BiH a criminal offense, or is it just an unconstitutional activity of the entity’s legislative body? should the National Assembly of Republika Srpska pass regulations suspending certain provisions of the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina?”, she asked.
She explained what exactly they violated by the regulations.
“Article III/3. b) of the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina stipulates that: b) Entities and all their administrative units shall fully comply with this Constitution, which repeals the legal provisions of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the constitutional and legal provisions of entities that they do not agree, as well as the decision of the institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Article VI/5 of the Constitution of BiH stipulates that the decisions of the Constitutional Court are final and binding. When passing this law, did the National Assembly of the RS act contrary to these provisions of the Constitution? The answer is yes. So it did illegal, i.e. unconstitutional. Is the suspension of decisions of the Constitutional Court on the territory of the RS entity an illegal act? Undoubtedly, it is, because the decisions of the Constitutional Court are final and binding for the entire territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina and for all its administrative levels of government. Is the signing of the Decree on the promulgation of the Law on the non-application of the decisions of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina and its publication in the Official Gazette of the Republic of Srpska, number: 60/23 an illegal act? Undoubtedly, it is,” explained Čolo.
At the end, she emphasized that all of the above is not just acting contrary to the decision of the High Representative, but that it is definitely also the commission of the criminal act “Attack on the constitutional order”.
“There is an illegal attempt to change the constitutional order of Bosnia and Herzegovina in such a way that the decisions of the highest judicial instance determined by the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina are not applied and are not executed on the territory of the RS entity,” Čolo concluded.