Bosnia Arrests Suspect for Fighting in Ukraine
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Vojnik samoproglašene Donjecke Narodne Republike (DNR) tokom 2014. godine. Foto: EPA-EFE/DAVE MUSTAINE
The State Investigation and Protection Agency arrested a 41-year-old man from Banja Luka on suspicion that he went to fight in the conflict in Ukraine, SIPA told BIRN Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The man, whose identity SIPA has not revealed, landed at Sarajevo airport on Monday on a regular flight from Belgrade.
“The State Border Police determined through a routine check that an arrest warrant had been issued against him and that the court had sentenced him to one day in jail. The Court Police of Republika Srpska then came for him and drove him to a prison where he served a one-day sentence. The State Investigation and Protection Agency arrested him last night,” said SIPA spokesperson Luka Miladinovic.
After SIPA processes the suspect, a prosecutor will decide on his status.
Gavrilo Stevic from Banja Luka is the only person who has been tried for going to the Ukrainian conflict zone so far, but the stage court acquitted him under a first-instance verdict. An appeal is currently underway.
Data that SIPA presented at the trial of Stevic suggested that in recent years, 12 Bosnian citizens have travelled to the Ukrainian conflict zone, where government forces are battling Russian-backed rebels in the eastern Donbas region.
SIPA has filed reports about crimes allegedly committed by each of them to the state prosecution because the law prohibits participation in foreign conflicts.
The criminal code also prohibits forming and joining foreign paramilitary or para-police formations.
Those who “organise, manage, train, equip or mobilise individuals or groups with the aim of joining, in any way, foreign military, foreign paramilitary or foreign para-police formations operating outside Bosnia and Herzegovina” can face a prison sentence.
