Bosnia Court Jails Syria Fighter for Three Years

Bosnia’s top court, the State Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, has sentenced Munib Ahmetspahic to three years in prison for fighting unlawfully in Syria, which the court deemed an act of terrorism.

Ahmetspahic was arrested at Sarajevo airport in late November 2018 after reportedly spending several years fighting for ISIL-linked groups in the Middle East.

He obtained a reduced sentence after reaching a guilt admission agreement with the Prosecution. “The Chamber decided to accept the agreement and consider it lawful,” Judge Branko Peric said.

The court ruled on Wednesday that, from 2013 to 2018, Ahmetspahic had fought in Syria and Iraq as a member of armed Islamist groups linked to Islamic State of Iraq and Levant, ISIL, namely Jabhat al-Nusra and Al-Nusra Front.

He was charged with joining terrorist organizations and with participating in battles and terrorist activities during which he was severely wounded.

He was previously acquitted under a second-instance verdict of organizing a terrorist group and of destroying evidence after Mevlid Jasarevic opened fire on the US embassy in Sarajevo in October 2011. Jasarevic was sentenced to 15 years for the terrorist attack.

Explaining the prosecution’s reasons for signing a plea agreement, prosecutor Dubravko Campara said Ahmetspahic had returned to Bosnia as a disabled person with an above-the-knee amputation.

He had also behaved correctly in his communications with Bosnia’s State Investigation and Protection Agency, SIPA, and with the prosecution.

“He pledged to give concrete testimony about what happened in Syria, about those who have returned and those who were with him and how they came back,” Campara noted. “His mobility is impaired by an above-the-knee amputation,” he added.

“Findings and opinions by expert witness Abdulah Kucukalic, a neuro-psychiatrist, who said he was completely deradicalized, are particularly interesting. He has admitted his guilt and wants to live in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and for his children to grow up with their father,” Campara continued.

Ahmetspahic insisted that he had repented of his actions and was aware of the extent to which he had been manipulated. “We were naïve to make such a decision … I would advise young people not to fall for such things. Whoever wants to fight for justice should do so in a legal way,” he told the court.

Bosnia and Herzegovina has so far sentenced a total of 25 persons to a total of 47 years and two months in prison for either inciting people to fight in Syria and Iraq, planning to go there, or fighting for ISIL.