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The Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina has approved a request from lawyers for Milorad Dodik, the recently ousted president of Republika Srpska, to replace his one-year jail sentence with a monetary penalty.
Under provisions of the country’s criminal code, sentences of up to 12 months can be converted to fines, calculated at 100 Bosnian marks ($59.36) per day. Dodik will therefore pay roughly 36,500 marks instead of serving time in prison.
The ruling does not affect his six-year prohibition from holding public office, which was imposed alongside the prison sentence after he was convicted of ignoring decisions issued by Bosnia’s international overseer, High Representative Christian Schmidt.
The verdict stems from Dodik’s insistence on moving forward with legislation in 2023 that Schmidt had explicitly blocked, measures seen as limiting the authority of Bosnia’s state-level institutions in the Serb-majority entity.
Shortly after the sentence became final, the Central Election Commission revoked Dodik’s presidential mandate, triggering the legal requirement for early elections in Republika Srpska. However, officials in the entity could attempt to delay or obstruct the process.
Dodik has launched multiple appeals to the Court of Appeals, the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina and potentially the European Court of Human Rights in a bid to overturn the loss of his office. He has also called for a possible referendum in Republika Srpska to challenge the court’s decision or to reaffirm his mandate, continuing a combative stance toward state authorities in Sarajevo.
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