Bosnian Serb Leader Promises Movement on Dragicevic Case

The paramount leader of the Bosnian Serbs, Milorad Dodik, says he is ready to move the case of a murdered 21-year-old student - who was killed in March last year and whose death has not been resolved - from the district attorney's office to the state prosecutor's office in Bosnia.

"I would gladly do that now, I think it's a good idea. If those from the 'Justice for David' group want it, I'm ready to do it; whenever they want," Dodik told N1 television on Wednesday, referring to the group campaigning for justice for David Dragicevic.

Back in December 2018, Dodik had said if no prosecutorial decision was made in the next month or two in the case, he would personally dismiss the prosecutors from their posts. However, nothing happened.

The discovery of the youngster's body on March 24, 2018, in the river Crkvena, not far from the centre of Banja Luka, the administrative centre of Republika Srpska, led to massive protests in the Serb-dominated entity of Bosnia.

Police initially said he had drowned but conflicting pathology reports and inconsistencies in police statements fuelled anger over what many Bosnian Serbs saw as police incompetence and indifference.

Dragicevic's parents insist that their son was murdered and allege a cover-up, something the authorities have vehemently denied. But, instead of detaining the perpetrators of the crime, the RS police later only detained Dragicevic's parents - for having organised illegal demonstrations.

Since March 2018, thousands of people have gathered every day in Krajina square in Banja Luka demanding that the police resolve this and other unexplained murders and address corruption in its ranks.

Davor Dragicevic, father of the deceased, led the protests that have spread beyond the...