The Public Prosecutor’s Office in Bosnia’s Serb-dominated Republika Srpska entity has discontinued an investigation into Abidin Mehmedovic, who was suspected of involvement in terrorism.
Jahja Vukovic, also known as Abdulaziz, pleaded not guilty at the Bosnian state court to organising a terrorist group, going to the Syrian conflict zone and participating in combat.
A state prosecution witness told the trial of Jasmin Keserovic, who is accused of joining a terrorist group, that he saw the defendant in Syria and heard that he was the right-hand man of a Bosnian unit commander there because of his knowledge of Arabic.
The Bosnian state court sentenced Senad Kasupovic to three years in prison for organising and joining a terrorist group, finding that he went to fight for Islamic State in Syria.
The State Investigation and Protection Agency arrested three people in the Olovo and Kladanj areas on suspicion of involvement in the illegal trafficking of firearms and military equipment.
At the trial of Jasmin Keserovic, who is accused of going to Syria to fight, an expert witness for the prosecution said that the defendant told him that he felt sorry that he went to the Middle East.
Bosnia lags behind the rest of the Western Balkans in terms of its strategy on countering terrorism, particularly how to handle fighters returning from foreign wars.
In closing statements at the state court, the prosecution asked for Senad Kasupovic be found guilty of organising a terrorist group, while the defence called for an acquittal, claiming a lack of evidence.
Terrorism defendant Emir Alisic's lawyer Barkir Hecimovic told BIRN Bosnia and Herzegovina that his client, who has been charged with joining foreign paramilitary groups, has struck a plea bargain with the Bosnian state prosecution.