Bosnia Serb Leader Sentenced for Defying International Envoy

Milorad Dodik on Feb. 25.

Photographer: Elvis Barukcic/AFP/Getty Images
Lock
This article is for subscribers only.

A high court in Bosnia-Herzegovina has sentenced Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik in absentia to one year in prison for defying the country’s top international overseer, barring him from office for six years.

The 65-year-old Dodik, who counts Russian President Vladimir Putin and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic as allies, has long refused to comply with the decisions of High Representative Christian Schmidt. The German politician is tasked with overseeing the implementation of the Dayton peace accord which ended Bosnia’s bloody war in 1995.