The president of the opposition SDS in the Republika Srpska, Milan Miličević, was taken to the prosecutor's office in Banja Luka. He was arrested on suspicion of abuse of office and financial fraud. Politically rigged process or justice?
The mayor of Teslić and the first man of the Serbian Democratic Party (SDS) Milan Milicevic, was conducted this Tuesday (June 10) at the competent Prosecutor's Office in Banja Luka, after he was arrested the day before on suspicion of abusing his official position and trying to influence the electoral will of citizens through financial fraud.
"The money that was found is not of criminal origin. It is money that five doctors, including me, have been collecting for at least a decade. That money was handed over voluntarily," Milicevic said after his arrest, accepting, as he added, that he was a political victim of the entire process. writes DW.
"Many others who spend tens of millions from this country and buy villas in Jahorina and Dedinje are free and will be free. If I am a victim - I accept it," Milicevic said.
Persecution or justice?
The arrest was preceded by an hours-long search of the SDS president's house, who was arrested along with two councilors in Teslić, Mehmed Dubravac and Meša Jašarević. They are suspected of bribery and influence peddling. The Republic Public Prosecutor's Office announced that 400.000 marks were found in Milicevic and 50.000 in Dubravec.
The arrest of a politician is an indicator that the state or system is functioning and that the judiciary, as one of the pillars of that system, rests on sound foundations. However, this case is not about that, especially due to the fact that abuse of official position and political trade is a common noun for domestic justice, because for two decades no one has been prosecuted for any affair.
"We should not lose sight of not arresting politicians from the government, for whom much greater accusations are circulating in the public, but that the judiciary is used as a way of retaliating against dissenters. Since it is the president of the largest opposition party, that may be why we are talking about the persecution of an opposition politician," Damjan Ožegović, from Transparency International BiH, assesses.
In the last 20 years in Republika Srpska, three banks have been destroyed, 646 million euros have been spent since the privatization of the then Telekom Srpska, many public companies have been destroyed, among which Šume RS is certainly the "best" example, two thermal power plants that are the pillars of the entity's energy system have been brought almost to the point of closure, several billion marks are waiting to be collected from harmful concession contracts... So far, no one has been arrested on those grounds, nor are investigations being conducted - unless it is necessary to discredit someone from one's own ranks.
Student karma
On the other hand, we should not forget that Milicevic is the only leader of a political party from Republika Srpska who supported students in Serbia.
"The youth of Serbia is marching with dignity on its path for justice... To live freely," Miličević wrote on his X account during the largest protest in Serbia in March of this year.
Coincidence or just a well-timed moment? A few days ago, the public was talking about the removal of Milicevic and the takeover of the party by the younger "champions". Tanja Topić, a political analyst from Banja Luka, said at the time that she saw "Belgrade handwriting" in that move.
"I think that the handwriting is recognizable and that the biggest 'sin' of the current president is that he supported the students at the protests in Serbia," Topić said then, adding now, after the arrest of Miličević, that the truth will come out one day.
"Maybe one day we will be able to find the truth about who was involved in the Miličević case - government structures from the RS, individuals from the SDS or political authorities from the neighborhood," says Topić.
Support from the Federation of BiH
The presidency of the SDS condemned the investigation and arrest, stating that it was a political persecution of the leader of that party. That is why they gathered in front of the Prosecutor's Office, demanding that Miličević be released.
"This is a staged political process and that is all clear. Milan Miličević is a man who is the embodiment of honesty, and yesterday he was detained in the most brutal way," said Želim Nešković (SDS) in front of the Republic Public Prosecutor's Office. He did not rule out the possibility of calling for civil disobedience.
The first man of the opposition Party of Democratic Progress (PDP) and mayor, Draško Stanivuković, emphasized that selective justice is worse than injustice.
"What kind of country are we making if it's a shame to save something," said Stanivuković, talking about the money that was found with Milicevic.
The Minister of Defense of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Zukan Helez (SDP), supported Milicevic, saying that the "regime" in Republika Srpska is "increasingly unscrupulous in dealing with dissidents." He is convinced that Miličević is under "attack by the regime's police structures". He expressed his full support for the SDS leader and the entire opposition in the Republic of Srpska in "their fight for freedom of political action, democracy and freedom."
"People who fight against corruption and nepotism must not be targets of the regime. Those who are not silent about crime in the RS must not be silenced," Helez said.
By the way, no political trade, not even the one publicly called the "Affair of two hooves" more than ten years ago, in which two deputies secured a majority in the RS National Assembly after the 2014 elections, in a suspicious manner, has not received any judicial epilogue. This is why there is a suspicion that in the case of the arrest of the first man of the largest opposition party in the RS, which currently has pretensions to be part of the government at the state level by removing Dodik's Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD) from the political equation - it is a politically staged process.
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