The trial of Republika Srpska (RS) President Milorad Dodik, accused of not implementing the decisions of the High Representative for BiH, continued on Wednesday in Sarajevo, and he and his lawyers again said after the hearing there was no evidence against him and that the entire process was "rigged" for political reasons.

After this hearing, it has become clear that the goal of the process is to eliminate Dodik from the political sphere, lawyer Goran Bubic told the press, dissatisfied with the fact that Judge Sena Uzunovic rejected the defence's request to call High Representative Christian Schmidt as a witness.

Croatian lawyer Anto Nobilo, who is in Dodik's defence team and who previously said that Schmidt's testimony had been the “first line” of Dodik's defence, announced that he would now look for an alternative to that strategy. He claims that there is some problematic communication between the court and “extra-judicial factors”, which allegedly make the defence's job difficult.

We still have to see what kind of position we are going to take on that, said Nobilo.

Angry Dodik claimed that the State Court and the Prosecutor's Office were unconstitutional institutions that enforce the will of foreigners and therefore protect the high representative.

“This is a typical political process,” he said, and he was particularly bothered by the interpretation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Bosnia and Herzegovina that Schmidt was a person who had diplomatic immunity and was therefore not obliged to testify.

He blamed Schmidt for everything that was wrong in Bosnia and Herzegovina and declared him unlawful.

Dodik and the director of the “Official Gazette of the RS”, Miloš Lukic, were accused because last year they enabled the publication of two laws that were adopted by the entity parliament, and High Representative Christian Schmidt annulled them based on his powers.

With these laws, the Republika Srpska entity tried to prevent the implementation of the judgments of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the decisions of the High Representative.

Non-implementation or non-compliance with the decisions of the High Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina is a criminal offence punishable by six months to five years in prison. A conviction means automatic dismissal from positions in the government as well as in institutions financed from the state budget.

At this hearing, the prosecution finished presenting its material evidence on the guilt of Dodik and Lukic.

The trial is scheduled to continue on 19 June.