In the investigation into the so-called "weekend snipers" in Sarajevo, who were allegedly paid to kill – including women, the elderly and children – during the siege of the city by Bosnian Serbs between 1992 and 1995, the first suspect for the murder appeared.
According to the information obtained as part of the investigation led by the Special Operations Group (ROS) of the Carabinieri, under the coordination of the public prosecutor Alessandro Gobis in the Prosecutor's Office Milana led by Marcelo Viola, on Wednesday a summons was served to the suspected 80-year-old former truck driver from the province of Pordenone, ANSA agency writes.
According to the Italian daily Il Giorno, he is a former truck driver who worked for a metal processing company.
According to the assumption of the Prosecutor's Office of Milan, which summoned him for questioning, he is accused of being "in complicity with other persons unknown for now" in the execution of "that criminal plan caused the death of unarmed civilians, among them women, the elderly and children, by shooting with precision rifles from the hills around Sarajevo between 1992 and 1995".
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Murder with low motives
The act was qualified as "murder with low motives".
According to the newspaper, he allegedly bragged to other people that he was "hunting people" in Sarajevo during that period, which is evident from the testimony collected in the investigation.
Based on the stories entered into the record during the hearing of the witnesses, the investigators and prosecutors identified the 80-year-old and decided to enter him in the register of suspects for deliberate continuous murder, i.e. for multiple episodes, and to invite him to the hearing at the Prosecutor's Office of Milan on February 9.
The former truck driver was summoned for questioning on Wednesday and was searched. In his house, ROS Carabinieri investigators found seven weapons that he legally owned: two pistols, one carbine and four rifles.
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Tourist shooters
The investigation was launched in Milan a few months ago, following a criminal complaint filed by writer and journalist Ezio Gavaceni, with the help of lawyers Nicola Brigido and Guido Salvini.
In the application, Gavaceni refers to the statements of Edin Subasic, a former agent of the Bosnian security services, according to which the Bosnian services informed their Italian colleagues in early 1994 that "tourist shooters" who participate in these "safaris" leave from Trieste.
According to ANSA, the Italian services then "stopped those terrible safaris".
Subasic also claimed that there may be documents confirming contacts between Bosnian and Italian agents, including possible identifications of the perpetrators.
The investigation also relies on the reports of the former mayor of Sarajevo, Benjamina Karić, who pointed to at least five people mentioned or described in the documentary "Sarajevo Safari" by Slovenian director Miran Zupanič from 2022.
Source: FoNet
