Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik refused to enter a plea on charges related to his efforts to ignore decisions by an international envoy in a court appearance for a trial he called a "circus."
Dodik appeared on October 16 in the Court of Bosnia-Herzegovina for a preliminary hearing that he called illegitimate, saying he didn't understand the charges against him because they were written in Latin script and not Serbian Cyrillic. He also refused to stand in front of the judge, saying his back hurt.
"This is a political process; this is a circus," he said after the brief hearing.
The 64-year-old has emerged as a major force in postwar Republika Srpska, the Serb-majority entity that along with a Bosniak-Croat federation compose Bosnia since a 1995 peace deal followed a bloody war of independence during the breakup of the former Yugoslavia.
Dodik, along with the head of Republika Srpska's official legal gazette, Milos Lukic, is charged with criminal offenses in connection with efforts to ignore decisions by Bosnia's Constitutional Court and by the international High Representative Christian Schmidt.
The Office of the High Representative is the international community's overseer of civilian, administrative, and other aspects of government stemming from the Dayton agreement that ended three years of intense fighting in 1995. As the international envoy, Schmidt has vast powers, including to fire officials and impose laws.
The legislation at the center of the case was approved by Republika Srpska lawmakers in June and signed by Dodik on July 7, before being published in the gazette run by Lukic. It stipulated that the decisions of the Office of the High Representative (OHR) and the Constitutional Court of Bosnia-Herzegovina should not be applied in the territory of the Republika Srpska.
The indictment states that Dodik signed the laws "even though he was aware that the decisions of the High Representative in Bosnia-Herzegovina are binding." The prosecution alleges that Dodik did this "with the intention that the afore mentioned decisions of the OHR in Bosnia and Herzegovina are not applied and implemented."
Lukic is accused of having "facilitated the implementation of the publication procedure" of the laws.
Dodik and Lukic face up to five years in prison and a ban on working in all public institutions and companies if found guilty.
Dodik told the court on October 16 that he did not know why he was charged and refused stand up to confirm his details and enter a plea, saying that his "back hurts."
After leaving the court, Dodik told reporters that the trial was "political" and that the laws he signed had passed all constitutional procedures in Republika Srpska. He also claimed that the indictment was a product of the "criminal enterprise made by Schmidt and the American ambassador to Bosnia-Herzegovina."
Dodik is a longtime ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Republika Srpska officials led by Dodik have questioned Schmidt's legitimacy since Moscow and Beijing opposed his appointment through their roles on the UN Security Council.
Dodik is under sanctions by the U.S Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) over alleged corruption and threatening the stability and territorial integrity of the country. He has also been designated for sanctions by the U.K. government because of his attempts to push for "de facto secession of Republic of Srpska."