The Milan public prosecutor’s office is already working to investigate the incident further. human safari The incident in Sarajevo was condemned in Italy by a writer and two prominent lawyers who had experience with the highly complex case. It is suspected that during the Bosnian war in the 1990s, there were Italians who were paid to go to Sarajevo and were able to shoot people as weekend snipers from hills controlled by Bosnian Serb militias.
“We have submitted documents that are full of evidence that merits further investigation and have presented them to the judicial authorities. We strongly believe that these documents will lead to the identification of at least some of those responsible for these terrible crimes,” lawyer Nicola Brigida confessed in a telephone conversation with EL PAÍS. He hopes that at some point the person under investigation will be named and the investigation will be expedited.
This Wednesday, more details will be revealed by one of the key sources cited in the complaint, who will be one of the key witnesses and give a statement. He is a former agent of the Bosnian Secret Service and asserts that in 1993 he informed the Italian intelligence service, then under the acronym SISMI, of the existence of such organized trips.
According to Italian media reports, “They answered us within a few months: ‘We have discovered that the safaris will depart from Trieste. We have suspended it, so there will be no more safaris,'” the former agent declared in his testimony.The route of these “war tourists” was to depart by plane from the Italian city bordering Slovenia and head to Belgrade. From there they headed overland to Sarajevo.
After that, they didn’t know more about it. “We have not received the names of hunters or organizers from SISMI. There should be SISMI documents to prove it,” the source said. This means that information about it may be stored in the Italian state archives. It raises a serious question: why was nothing taken against these people at the time? Precisely, one of the demands on the public prosecutor’s office is to check whether a copy of the document exists in Italy.
Brigida, who did not give further details about the case and preferred to leave it to investigators, was one of the lawyers who prepared the brief submitted to the prosecutor’s office in July, but this week it was revealed. He collaborated with former judge Guido Salvini on materials compiled by journalist and author Ezio Gavazzeni, who had researched the issue for years and sought advice.
Brigida took part in trials concerning missing Italians in Argentina and Chile (such as the trial of Admiral Masera of the Argentine military junta, General Suarez Mason and General Rivera, the trial of Oscar Alfonso Podrev Michaud, a high-ranking official of the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile, and the victims of Operation Condor), and was also involved in several serious attacks during the years of the initiative in Italy, for example the Bologna train station in 1980. The other lawyer, Guido Salvini, is a well-known former magistrate who now practices law full-time, and in the past has investigated some very dark conspiracies, including neo-fascist terrorism in Italy and the secret Gladio military network.
Brigida warns that it is difficult to be surprised, as she has had to handle a variety of cases throughout her career. “I was surprised by this story to a certain extent. After dealing with things like Deathflight, nothing surprises me anymore.” He said it was “evil people, Perhaps there was also an ideological motive, he had a passion for weapons and was going to shoot at a shooting range. ”
The two lawyers joined in this difficult fight for the truth, which began with the submission of a 17-page document to the prosecutor’s office laying out a series of clues, signs and witnesses who might be questioned. Alessandro Gobis, the prosecutor in charge of the case, will likely be able to pull the strings in the future.
“Clearly, our writings are considered to be well-founded and serious and deserve to be verified and investigated. The public prosecutor’s office opened an investigation, which was entrusted to the anti-terrorism department of the ROS (Raggruppamento Operativo Speciale, Carabinieri unit specializing in terrorism),” the lawyer explains.
“He was widely known,” says the writer.
The news caused a stir in Italy, but Italian writer and activist Adriano Soffri, who was in Sarajevo at the time and chronicled it in an Italian newspaper, published an article on Wednesday this week in which he said the phenomenon was “known worldwide.” What’s more, he says, participants in this macabre activity were “enthusiastic and in large numbers.” His article reproduces phrases from a contemporary text speaking on the subject, from May 17, 1995: Chetnik (Serbian ultranationalist militia) Mr. Sofri said that Mr. Karadzic explained to Bosnian Serb television that he went to Sarajevo to shoot because he was “disappointed in love,” and that in the same text, Mr. Karadzic said on his television that he explained that even when the targets are children (the target is small, the shooter’s achievements are large), there are also notable cases of Greek groups and Japanese volunteers. The person photographed was Serbian ultranationalist Vojislav Ceseil, who pushed a passerby to the ground in front of the camera.
Brigida said Italy’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs also has access to records of various cases relating to crimes in the former Yugoslavia that took place in recent decades at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague. They mention these “war tourists” in several eyewitness accounts. Benjamina Calić, former mayor of Sarajevo from 2021 to 2024, also formally sent the information she knows to the Milan court.
Brigida explains that it is not provided for in this case because it is a very serious crime for which life imprisonment is being considered in Italy. “The criminal code provides that even if the final stages of these crimes were committed in another country, the jurisdiction of the Italian judicial system remains and they can be prosecuted in Italy. Otherwise, it would guarantee impunity for nationals who go abroad, commit horrific crimes, and then take refuge in Italy,” he argues.
About The Author
