An 80-year-old Italian former truck driver is under investigation in Milan on charges of aggravated murder, accused of paying Bosnian Serb soldiers to shoot at civilians during the siege of Sarajevo in the 1990s. He is the first suspect to be named since the inquiry began in November, according to a source close to the case.
The man, from the Veneto region, allegedly bragged about 'conducting a manhunt'. He is one of several so-called 'sniper tourists' who reportedly paid large sums to join Bosnian Serb forces in the hills around Sarajevo to shoot at residents for pleasure. More than 10,000 people died in the siege, the longest in modern history, from shelling and sniper fire between 1992 and 1996.
The investigation was triggered by a legal complaint from writer Ezio Gavazzeni and a report from former Sarajevo mayor Benjamina Karić. Gavazzeni said he acted after watching the 2022 documentary 'Sarajevo Safari', in which a former Serbian soldier and a contractor claimed westerners shot at civilians. Serbian war veterans have denied the allegations.
Gavazzeni told the Guardian that suspects would meet in Trieste, travel to Belgrade, and then be escorted by Bosnian Serb soldiers to the hills. 'There was a traffic of war tourists who went there to shoot people. I call it an indifference towards evil,' he said.
Among the most famous sniper victims were Bošco Brkić and Admira Ismić, a couple killed on a bridge in 1993, whose bodies lay in no man's land for days. Their story was documented in the film 'Romeo and Juliet in Sarajevo'.
