Prosecutor’s Office of BiH: Dodik’s threats to voters are not a crime

TI BiH considers it especially disputable that the Prosecutor’s Office of BiH, when considering the threat and its criminal-legal relevance, did not take into account that the threat was made by a person who is in a prominent social position and has real political power.

Banja Luka, 20. January 2021 – The Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina has made a final decision on criminal charges filed by Transparency International in BiH (TI BiH) against SNSD leader Milorad Dodik for threatening pensioners and workers of RITE Gacko during the 2018 election campaign. year and concluded that there were no elements of a crime in everything.

TI BiH reported this case in the 2018 election campaign. because there are grounds for suspicion that the threats were a criminal offense related to the violation of the freedom of choice of voters. The acting prosecutor refused to initiate an investigation, explaining that the threat was not concrete, that the pre-election speech was not only listened to by RITE Gacko workers but by unidentified persons, that “it is not clear how dismissal can occur” and the like.

TI BiH complained about this argument of the acting prosecutor, and it took the Chief Prosecutor of the Prosecutor’s Office of BiH Gordana Tadić almost two years to make a decision on the complaint. Ultimately, the application is 13. January this year was rejected on the grounds that the threat did not cause fear among employees.

– The words that Milorad Dodik addressed at the pre-election rallies in Ugljevik and Gacko are extremely inappropriate from the aspect of correctness of expression and respect for other participants in the election process. However, they did not cause serious fear among those present, nor were they taken seriously. Insight into the records from these gatherings shows that they were accompanied by laughter and applause. In that sense, the allegations of the acting prosecutor regarding the absence of elements of a criminal offense are correct, is stated in the decision of the Prosecutor’s Office of BiH signed by the Chief Prosecutor Gordana Tadić.

The decision further states that voting in Bosnia and Herzegovina is secret, so it is “It is common knowledge that even the registered Milorad Dodik could not have known how all the workers of RITE Gacko used their right to vote.” This argumentation of the Prosecutor’s Office of BiH is especially controversial due to the increasing occurrence of control over the election process (photographing ballots, etc.) and is interesting in the context of Dodik’s recent threats to the citizens of Banja Luka after the last elections “To take data from every polling station” and deny economic aid.

In the complaint, TI BiH stated that in this criminal act, it is not necessary to prove that the pressure on voters succeeded, ie that it is not necessary to determine how many pensioners under threat actually voted for his party. An important element in the criminal offense of Violation of the freedom of choice of voters is that the threats made to the persons to whom they are addressed cause a sense of the feasibility of these threats and affect the freedom of choice of voters.

TI BiH considers it especially disputable that the Prosecutor’s Office of BiH, when considering the threat and its criminal-legal relevance, did not take into account that the threat was made by a person who is in a prominent social position and has real political power. In this way, the message is sent that economic conditioning and threats to voters will go unpunished.

We remind you that Milorad Dodik was during the campaign for the 2018 General Elections. He threatened the workers of RITE Gacko that they would be “fired” if they voted for the opposition candidates, and then the pensioners that they would be denied one-time help if they did not vote for his political option.

Press rls 20.1.2021