Bosnian Serb Assembly Urges Judge to Quit State Constitutional Court

The Bosniak member of Bosnia's tripartite presidency, Denis Becirovic, has condemned the assembly of Republika Srpska, one of two entities in Bosnia, after it called on a state Constitutional Court judge, Zlatko Knezevic, to resign from his position.

The call was "an immeasurably dangerous attempt to replicate the unconstitutional methods employed by the convicted war criminal Radovan Karadzic in 1992." he said, referencing the wartime Bosnian Serb leader and convicted war criminal.

"A judge acts in the Constitutional Court of Bosnia in their personal capacity and not as a representative of an entity," Becirovic wrote on Thursday. 

On the initiative of the Bosnian Serb leader and President of Republika Srpska, Milorad Dodik, the Bosnian Serb assembly met on Wednesday to discuss what it called the "unconstitutional actions of the [state] court." 

Its call came after the Court annulled two laws on state property adopted in the RS, which would transfer ownership from the state to the entity of Republika Srpska.

Besides the call for the judge to resign, the assembly also instructed members of the House of Representatives in the state-level parliament to initiate a new Constitutional Court law.

This would kick out the three foreign judges appointed by the European Court of Human Rights. The other six members of the court are appointed by the two entities, the RS and the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The assembly again confirmed the decisions of an earlier meeting, on December 10, 2021, to withdraw its consent for a joint armed forces, a joint judiciary and joint taxation system, "when the conditions allow it." 

In mid-April, Bosniak and civic parties from the Federation entity signed a joint...