Bosnian Serb lawmakers vote to suspend rulings of Bosnia's top court

Auravelle Metals

27/06/2023 19:17

By Daria Sito-Sucic
       SARAJEVO, June 27 (Reuters) - Lawmakers in Bosnia's
autonomous Serb Republic voted on Tuesday to suspend rulings by
Bosnia's constitutional court, a move described by experts as a
"legal secession" that is set to deepen political divisions in
the volatile Balkan country. 
    The region's separatist pro-Russian President Milorad Dodik,
who has long criticised the court for having foreign judges on
board, initiated the vote after the court last week decided to
change the rules to be able to convene sessions and make
decisions without Serb judges.
    The Serb Republic lawmakers agreed that the decisions and
acts of the constitutional court would not be implemented on
their territory until a nationwide law on the court had been
adopted by the national parliament.
    The lawmakers also agreed that Serb representatives in state
institutions would not take part in any talks on reforms needed
for Bosnia's integration into the European Union until the
constitutional court had been reformed and the office of an
international peace overseer had been closed down.
    Following its war in the 1990s, Bosnia was split into two
autonomous regions, the Serb Republic and the Federation shared
by Bosniaks and Croats, which are linked via a weak central
government.
    The 1995 Dayton peace agreement that ended the war
established the constitutional court with exclusive jurisdiction
to decide any dispute that arises between the entities, between
the state and the entities or between state institutions.
    Three of the nine court members are appointed by the
president of the European Court of Human Rights and six by
regional parliaments.
    The Serb Republic parliament, which appoints two Serb judges
to the court, has failed to nominate a new candidate to fill a
vacancy, while Dodik and his allies have called on the remaining
Serb judge to withdraw from the court, which they say has acted
against Serb interests.
    "This is a biased, inquisition court ... which has violated
the constitution in a number of cases," Dodik told the
parliament.
    Dodik, who has long called for the secession of his region
from Bosnia, announced that he might also seek to suspend the
work of Bosnia's state court, prosecution and the state police
agency SIPA in the Serb Republic.
    "This is a long announced legal secession in Bosnia and
Herzegovina," said Nedim Ademovic, a constitutional law expert,
adding the move would trigger the "deepest crisis since the
Dayton peace deal".
    The Bosniak member of Bosnia's tripartite inter-ethnic
presidency, Denis Becirovic, called on the peace envoy to
sanction Dodik and his allies for derogating the peace
agreement.
    The envoy, German former government minister Christian
Schmidt, had said the vote would represent the attack on
Bosnia's constitutional order and constitute a serious violation
of the Dayton agreement.

 (Reporting by Daria Sito-Sucic; Editing by Mark Potter)
 ((daria.sito-sucic@thomsonreuters.com; +38733 295 484; Reuters
Messaging: daria.sito-sucic.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))