BELGRADE, August 12. /TASS/. A court in Bosnia and Herzegovina has granted an appeal by the defense team of President Milorad Dodik of Republika Srpska (one of the country’s two constituent entities) that his prison sentence be replaced with a fine.

"After considering a request filed by <...> Milorad Dodik’s defense team that his prison sentence be substituted with a fine, the court decided, based on legal regulations, to uphold the defense team’s request, so the prison sentence handed down <...> to Dodik was replaced with a fine," the court said in a statement.

As per the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina, also known as the Dayton Agreement, Bosnia and Herzegovina is made up of two primary entities: the Muslim-Croatian Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (51% of the territory) and Republika Srpska (49% of the territory), as well as the Brcko District. Three main peoples — the Bosniaks (Slavs converted to Islam), the Serbs (Orthodox) and the Croatians (Catholics) — are represented proportionally in the government.

The country is essentially governed through a high representative (a post created by the 1995 Dayton Agreement), who is appointed by the steering committee of the Peace Implementation Council after approval by the UN Security Council. However, in May 2021, the ambassadors of the steering committee countries decided to appoint Christian Schmidt as the new high representative without approval from the UN Security Council. The Republika Srpska leadership, Russia and China do not recognize Schmidt’s legitimacy.

On August 6, the Central Election Commission of Bosnia and Herzegovina ended Dodik’s mandate as president of Republika Srpska due to his conviction and ordered an early election. Earlier, Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Appeals Panel of the Court upheld the first-instance verdict, sentencing Dodik to six years in prison and banning him from engaging in political activities for refusing to comply with the decisions of High Representative Christian Schmidt. In response, Dodik announced plans to hold a referendum on confidence in him as president in Republika Srpska.