Bosnia Police Arrest ISIS Suspect at Airport
This post is also available in: Bosnian
Bosnian State Investigation and Protection Agency, SIPA, which deals with organised crime and terrorism, arrested a man on Wednesday night at Sarajevo airport suspected of having fought for Islamic State terrorists.
The 29-year-old originally from Velika Kladusa, with the initials M.K., is believed to have fought with Islamic State from November 2014 to June 2015.
The suspect was nabbed while traveling back to Bosnia on a flight from Turkey. He is now in SIPA custody and will be eventually transferred to the State Prosecution.
With its large Muslim population, Bosnia is of the main exporters of Islamist fighters in the Western Balkans.
Last year, ISIS released also a propaganda video aimed at recruiting citizens coming from Bosnia and and encouraging them to join their holy war.
More than 200 Bosnian citizens are thought to joined the war in the Middle East, fighting for ISIS or other Islamist brigades operating in Syria and Iraq. At least 26 are reported to have been killed.
In 2014, to stop the flow, Bosnia adopted a new law toughening the sanctions against people who leave the country to fight abroad or who recruit others with the same goal.
Courts for the first time jailed citizens accused of this crime last year: in early October, the Bosnian State court jailed four persons for trying to join militants fighting in Syria.
On November 5, courts jailed Husein “Bilal” Bosnic, who was considered a leader of Bosnia’s Salafi community, for seven years for recruiting volunteers, at least six of whom have since died.
