After yesterday's testimony in the Prosecutor's Office of BiH as a suspect in the "Pavlović Bank" affair, the member of the Presidency of BiH, Milorad Dodik, held a press conference in East Sarajevo.

At the press conference, he shamefully insulted the journalists of "Dnevni avaz" and BN Television, as well as several high-ranking officials, including the British Ambassador Matthew Field and Gabriel Escobar, the US Special Envoy for the Western Balkans.

Downplaying the issue

- The most recent European Commission country report on Bosnia and Herzegovina underlined serious concerns about political pressure, intimidation and threats against journalists, particularly women. There have been a number of documented cases where high-level politicians have resorted to public attacks and disparaging remarks against journalists, analysts and media workers. The authorities continue to downplay the issue and there is no data collection by public institutions on threats and attacks against journalists and media workers.

Any attack on journalists is an attack on core democratic values. Politicians in BiH must refrain from using their power and influence to intimidate journalists and uphold BiH’s domestic and international obligations to protect freedom of speech – it was said from the Delegation EU.

Abuse of office and money laundering

We remind you that a member of the Presidency of BiH and the leader of the SNSD arrived at the building of the Prosecutor's Office of BiH in Sarajevo just after 10 AM yesterday, where he gave a statement on the subject of buying a villa in Dedinje in Belgrade.

This time as well, Dodik manifested his vulgarity by showing his "middle finger" from the car while the journalists were filming him. He repeated the same thing when he left the Prosecutor's Office.

Dodik paid 750,000 euros for the villa 15 years ago. When this affair was opened, he claimed that he paid for the disputed property with money from a loan he took out at Pavlović Bank.

The Prosecutor's Office of BiH officially suspects him of abuse of office and money laundering.