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Bosnia court issues international arrest warrant for Serb leader Dodik

Milorad Dodik President of Republika Srpska

27 March 2025 14:20 (UTC +04:00)

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, APA reports citing Reuters.

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, had initiated legislation barring the state judiciary and police from operating in the Serb region, but Bosnia's constitutional court temporarily suspended that.

Defying an internal arrest warrant, he crossed into neighbouring Serbia earlier this week then travelled 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 travelled to Serbia though is now back in Bosnia. The warrants are with the international police Interpol, the court said in a statement.

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