Pavlovic Bank

Bosnia's Security Minister has denied that Sarajevo ever asked Serbia to arrest Milorad Dodik, President of the Republika Srpska, in connection with an investigation being conducted against him.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said on Monday that Bosnia had asked Serbia to detain Dodik over, he said, "some villa".

The chief prosecutor of Bosnia-Herzegovina has confirmed that his office is investigating RS President Milorad Dodik in connection with the Pavlovic Bank.

"The investigation is conducted within the 'Pavloviv Bank' (case). Three or four investigations against Dodik have been closed," Goran Salihovic has told the Sarajevo-based daily Oslobodjenje.

Confirmation that Milorad Dodik, President of Republika Srpska and leader of the ruling Alliance of Independent Social Democrats, SNSD, is being investigated in connection with a failed bank will have an impact on the local elections due in October, experts say.

Bosnian state police, SIPA, on Thursday arrested Slobodan Pavlovic, owner of the Pavlovic Bank, which is at the centre of a controversy over a villa in Belgrade bought by the Bosnian Serb leader, Milorad Dodik.

Bosnia's State Intelligence and Protection Agency, SIPA, raided the premises of Pavlovic International Bank in the northeastern Bosnian town of Bijeljina on Wednesday.

They entered the bank "under a mandate given by the Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is investigating a possible case of illegal transactions", the spokesperson of SIPA confirmed to BIRN.