Bosnian Appeals Against Conviction for Fighting in Syria

The state prosecution on March 13 appealed against the verdict convicting Ibro Cufurovic, calling on the appeals chamber of the Bosnian state court to revise the verdict and impose a longer sentence.

Prosecutor Cazim Hasanspahic said he thought that the first instance Chamber took a partial approach to the assessment of “aggravating and other circumstances”. He said that the prosecution considered Cufurovic’s admission of guilt to be the only mitigating circumstance.

“Admission of guilt should be considered a mitigating circumstance, but we consider that there has been no genuine repentance. It [repentance] was expressed in order to get the lowest possible sanction,” Hasanspahic said.

He added that Cufurovic’s young age at the time of his departure to Syria and joining the so-called Islamic State could not be considered a mitigating circumstance.

Hasanspahic also said Cufurovic was “the first Bosnian citizen who stayed on the Syrian battlefront until the very end and actively participated in ISIL forces”.

He further suggested that a longer prison sentence should be imposed for deterrent purposes.

Under the first-instance verdict handed down in December last year, Cufurovic was convicted of “organising a terrorist group”.

According to the verdict, on April 21, 2014, he left Bosnia and Herzegovina and travelled to Turkey, after which he illegally crossed the Turkish-Syrian border.

“He went there with the intention of fighting for so-called Islamic State on the territory of Syria and Iraq and terrorist groups of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, ISIL, which operated on the territory of Syria and Iraq,” the first-instance verdict said.

“By conducting armed operations, including attacks on the population, murders, unlawful detention, taking hostages and other actions on a daily basis, their members intended to force the legitimate Syrian authorities to change the constitutional arrangement and political regime,” the court said.

The prosecution claimed in the original indictment in July 2019 that Cufurovic, under the name of Abu Kasim Albosni, participated in terrorist activities, provided assistance to and fought for ISIL in Syria as member of the Bejt Komandos Unit, which was later renamed El Aksa.

Cufurovic was deported from Syria in April 2019.

Meanwhile Cufurovic’s defence asked for the first-instance verdict to be revised and a shorter sentence imposed, while Cufurovic himself proposed that the time he spent in a military prison in Syria be counted towards his sentence.

“I think Ibro Cufurovic is not a radical person,” lawyer Senad Dupovac said, adding that his conduct before the court and his repentance, among other things, should be considered mitigating circumstances.

He also said that right after his verdict, Cufurovic sought to start serving his sentence, not to wait for a second-instance verdict, which shows his repentance was sincere.

Dupovac explained that on July 19, 2019 the defence filed a proposal to conclude an agreement with the prosecution, but no response was received.

Addressing the Appeals Chamber, Cufurovic pointed to contradictions between statements given by a protected witness during the trial.

“I proved in court that the witness was giving completely false information,” Cufurovic said.

He added that he had “strong witnesses” who said that he wanted to return from Syria in 2016. He also introduced several pieces of material evidence.

A decision on the appeals will be made at a later stage.