The Millán Prosecutor’s Office is already moving to try to find out more human safaris in Sarajevo, reported in Italy by a writer and two prestigious lawyers expert in very complex cases: it is suspected that there were Italians who, during the war in Bosnia, in the 1990s, paid to go to Sarajevo and be able to shoot as weekend snipers, from the hills controlled by the Bosnian Serb militias.
“We have presented documentation full of evidence that deserves further investigation and which we have suggested to the judiciary. We firmly believe that they can lead to identifying at least some of those responsible for these horrendous crimes”, confides the lawyer Nicola Brigida in a telephone conversation with EL PAÍS. He hopes that sooner or later the name of the suspect can be identified, which would speed up the investigation.
This Wednesday, more details emerged from one of the key sources cited in the complaint and who will be one of the main witnesses, who will have to give a deposition. This is a former agent of the Bosnian secret services who assures that in 1993 they informed the Italian secret services, then with the acronym Sismi, of the existence of these organized trips.
“They responded to us within two or three months: ‘We discovered that the safari starts from Trieste. We stopped it and there will be no more safaris,’ the former agent states in his testimony, as reported by the Italian media. The route of these “war tourists” started by plane from the Italian city, on the border with Slovenia, headed for Belgrade. From there they continued by road to Sarajevo.
After that they didn’t know anymore. “We have not obtained the names of the hunters or organizers from SISMI, there should be a SISMI document certifying this,” says the source. That is to say that there may be confidential information in this regard in the Italian state archives. This raises a crucial question: why then was no action taken against these people? Indeed, one of the requests to the Prosecutor’s Office is to verify whether a copy of that documentation exists in Italy.
Brigida, who prefers not to provide further details on the case and let the investigators work, is one of the lawyers who prepared the brief presented to the Prosecutor’s Office in July, but known this week. He did it together with the former magistrate Guido Salvini, with the material collected by the journalist and writer Ezio Gavazzeni, who investigated the matter for years and then asked for his advice.
Brigida participated in judicial cases of missing Italians in Argentina and Chile (trial of Admiral Massera and generals Suárez Mason and Rivera, of the Argentine military junta; that of Oscar Alfonso Podlech Michaud, high official of the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile; and of the victims of the Condor operation, among others), as well as in some serious attacks of the Years of Lead in Italy, such as that of the Bologna station in 1980. The other lawyer, Guido Salvini, is a prestigious former magistrate, now dedicated to the legal profession, who in the past investigated very dark plots, such as Italian neo-fascist terrorism or the secret military network Gladio.
Because of the cases she has had to handle throughout her career, Brigida warns that it is difficult for her to let herself be surprised: “This story surprised me to a certain extent: after having faced things like death flights, nothing surprises me anymore.” He underlines that it is “a group of criminals” with a common profile: “Evil people, perhaps also ideologically motivated, passionate about weapons, who went to shoot at shooting ranges.
The two lawyers joined this difficult battle for the truth which began with the presentation to the Prosecutor’s Office of a 17-page document indicating a series of clues, indications and possible witnesses to be interviewed. Supply chains that prosecutor Alessandro Gobbis, in charge of the case, will now be able to carry forward.
“Evidently our writing was considered well-founded and serious, which deserved to be verified and examined in depth. The Prosecutor’s Office opened an investigation, which was delegated to the anti-terrorism section of the ROS (Special Operational Group, Carabinieri unit specialized in terrorism),” explains the lawyer.
The public prosecutor, Brigida indicates, is also acquiring the minutes of the various trials of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague for the crimes of the former Yugoslavia, which took place in recent decades. They refer to these “war tourists” in some witness statements. The former mayor of Sarajevo from 2021 to 2024, Benjamina Karic, also sent a formal communication to the Milan court with the information she is aware of.
The case did not prescribe, explains Brigida, because since it is a very serious crime punishable by life imprisonment, which is foreseen in Italy, it never prescribes. “The penal code provides that, although the final phase of these crimes was committed in another country, the jurisdiction of the Italian judicial system is maintained and can be prosecuted in Italy. Otherwise, the impunity of a citizen who goes abroad, commits horrible crimes and then takes refuge in Italy would be guaranteed,” he argues.
