BUBIĆ: WE WILL INITIATE PROCEEDINGS BEFORE COURT IN STRASBOURG

BANJA LUKA, NOVEMBER 4 /SRNA/ - Goran Bubić, attorney for President Milorad Dodik, told SRNA Tuesday evening that by dismissing the defense’s appeal, the truncated Constitutional Court of BiH confirmed that the Constitution of BiH, as the highest legal act, is not being applied, but rather the political decisions of a self-proclaimed foreigner, and announced that proceedings will be initiated before the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

Bubić emphasized that in BiH, law no longer decisively governs, but politics, continuing a pattern of injustice that is undermining the legal system in the country. "This decision is not only an attack on the institution of the President of Republika Srpska, but also on the fundamental principles of the Dayton Agreement-based BiH, as it nullifies the legislative will of the people and the entity," Bubić emphasized in a written statement to SRNA. He assessed that this case is not merely a violation of an individual’s rights, but a substantive issue of constitutionality and legality, which form the foundation of the rule of law in any country. Bubić warned that such a decision has far-reaching consequences, as it practically means that legislative functions in BiH can be exercised without a parliament, and that the content of the General Framework Agreement for Peace in BiH, particularly Annexes 4 and 10, becomes irrelevant, which is fundamentally contrary to a democratic order and the rule of law. "The defense will certainly make use of the legal remedies available to it, such as initiating proceedings before the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, to protect the principles of legality, fair trial, and the constitutional order defined by the Dayton Peace Agreement, that is, the Constitution of BiH as an essential part of it," Bubić emphasized. He said that the Constitutional Court dismissed arguments clearly demonstrating that Article 203a of the BiH Criminal Code was not adopted constitutionally, as it was not passed by the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH but was imposed by an illegal High Representative who was never confirmed by the UN Security Council. By doing so, the Constitutional Court, Bubić added, supported a self-proclaimed foreigner instead of the Constitution of BiH, bypassing the previously established practice for appointing the High Representative to BiH, which contradicts the position of the European Court of Human Rights that the High Representative to BiH is part of the UN mission. He stated that the Constitutional Court consciously confirmed a legal absurdity in which an individual, without a mandate and lacking democratic legitimacy, can enact "laws," and the highest judicial authority accepts them as legally valid. In other words, the Constitutional Court "legalized" not only the violation of an entity’s constitution through a BiH law, but also that the Constitution of Republika Srpska can be violated by an illegitimate foreigner, and that the BiH judiciary must accept this. "Moreover, the fact that such a `law` could be applied without vacatio legis, before its formal publication in the official gazette and before the public is made aware of it, is de jure nonsense, an impermissible and unacceptable antinomy, even if such a law had been passed by the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH," Bubić pointed out. The truncated Constitutional Court of BiH, in which no Serb judges sit, dismissed the appeal filed by President Milorad Dodik’s legal team against the ruling of the BiH Court, which sentenced him to one year in prison and imposed a six-year ban on political activity for "disregarding the decisions of Christian Schmidt."