The Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina suspended the investigation against Milorad Dodik, even though he publicly admitted that he was eavesdropping on the opposition

Banja Luka, November 26, 2024 – The Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina passed an Order on the suspension of the investigation against Milorad Dodik, even though he publicly stated that he was eavesdropping on the opposition. This statement was made at the session of the 13th Special National Assembly of the Republic of Srpska (NSRS) on May 20, 2020. Nine days later, after the complaint of Transparency International in BiH and the representative of the opposition, the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina requested the first checks be carried out, but the Order on the implementation of the investigation was passed in September 2022, after Dodik declared that he was also eavesdropping on the US ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Since the order to conduct the investigation was passed too late, that is, two years after this criminal offense was reported, in the opinion of the TI BIH, significant time was lost for gathering evidence. It follows from the prosecutor’s decision that certain pieces of evidence could not even be collected, because they are kept for a maximum of one year, which raises the question of why it took two years to issue an order to conduct the investigation? The Prosecution states that cooperation with the Intelligence and Security Agency of Bosnia and Herzegovina (OSA) was established, and the agency was given the opportunity to verify these allegations without detailed explanation.

Also, checks were carried out in order to determine the possibility of expertise of a certain server through which legal interceptions of telecommunications are carried out, and in order to determine whether there is recorded communication on it that indicate possible illegal interception. The aforementioned checks showed that the data is stored on the server for a maximum of one year, and that it is almost impossible to remove the server for inspection or expert examination, as this would jeopardize all investigations in which special investigative actions are being carried out. Namely, the legal interception of communications would have to be terminated, and there is no other server, according to the prosecutor’s decision.

It also follows from the decision of the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina that numerous witnesses were heard in this case, but not the suspect Milorad Dodik. It should be emphasized that the acting prosecutor had the opportunity to conduct special investigative actions against the suspect, bearing in mind that he was charged with the criminal offense of Unauthorized eavesdropping and sound or optical recording, however, the decision did not state that these actions were undertaken. TI BiH sent a complaint to the Chief Prosecutor of the Prosecutor’s Office of BiH, and pointed out the shortcomings of the specific procedure.

It should be noted that numerous witnesses testified in this case, the then opposition MPs Nebojša Vukanović, Draško Stanivuković, Ivanka Marković, Miladin Stanić, Nedeljko Glamočak, Davor Šešić, Milan Tubin, Zoran Vidić and Tomica Stojanović and Branislav Borenović. The then Minister of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Srpska, Dragan Lukač, whom Dodik addressed at the disputed session when he publicly stated that he was eavesdropping on opposition MPs, and even provided details of allegedly recorded phone conversations, also testified.

SIPA was also engaged in the investigation by the order of the Prosecutor’s Office of BiH, which checked, as stated, the activities of the Ministry of Interior of the RS related to the use of equipment used to carry out special investigative actions “surveillance and recording of technical communications”.

Given that Dodik specifically claimed to have a phone recording of Nebojša Vukanović and Draško Stanivuković, in March of this year the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina issued orders to the Border Police of Bosnia and Herzegovina, SIPA and the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the RS, to check whether the phones of the two then MPs were the subject of special investigative actions from November 2018 until the session in 2020. However, it is not clear from the Decision whether the Prosecution checked if the disputed telephone conversation was audible recorded.

These three institutions informed the Prosecutor’s Office that their telephones were not the subject of special investigative actions, and from the testimonies of the two MPs, the Prosecution could not conclude whether Dodik’s claims refer to the content of the telephone conversations between Stanivuković and Vukanović.

From the above, the Prosecutor’s Office concluded that there is not enough evidence that Dodik committed the criminal offense of Unauthorized eavesdropping and sound or optical recording, which is why the investigation was suspended.