The Milan Prosecutor’s Office is already moving to try to find out more about a writer and two prestigious lawyers experienced in very complex cases: it is suspected that there were Italians who, during the Bosnian war, in the nineties, paid to travel to Sarajevo and be able to shoot people as weekend snipers, from the hills controlled by the Bosnian Serb militias.
“We have presented documentation full of evidence that deserves further investigation, and that we have suggested to the judiciary. We firmly believe that they can lead to identifying at least some of those responsible for these horrendous crimes,” confides lawyer Nicola Brigida in a telephone conversation with EL PAÍS. He hopes that at some point the name of someone under investigation can be identified, which would speed up the investigations.
This Wednesday, more details emerged from one of the key sources cited in the complaint and who will be one of the main witnesses, who will have to give a statement. He is a former agent of the Bosnian secret services who assures that in 1993 they informed the Italian intelligence agency, then with the acronym SISMI, of the existence of these organized trips.
“They answered us in two or three months: ‘We have discovered that the safari leaves from Trieste. We have interrupted it and there will be no more safaris,’ the former agent declares in his testimony, according to Italian media reports. The route of these “war tourists” left by plane from the Italian city, bordering Slovenia, heading to Belgrade. From there, they went by road to Sarajevo.
Afterwards they didn’t know more about it. “We did not obtain names of the hunters or organizers from SISMI, there should be a SISMI document that certifies it,” says this source. That is to say, there could be reserved information about it in the archives of the Italian State. That raises a crucial question: why was no action taken against these people then? Precisely, one of the requests to the Prosecutor’s Office is to verify if a copy of that documentation exists in Italy.
Brigida, who prefers not to give more details about the case and let the investigators work, is one of the lawyers who prepared the brief presented to the Prosecutor’s Office in July, but known this week. He has done it together with former magistrate Guido Salvini, with the material compiled by the journalist and writer Ezio Gavazzeni, who has investigated this matter for years and then sought his advice.
Brigida has participated in judicial cases of missing Italians in Argentina and Chile (trials of Admiral Massera and Generals Suárez Mason and Rivera, of the Argentine Military Junta; that of Oscar Alfonso Podlech Michaud, a high official of the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile; and of victims of the , among others), as well as in some serious attacks from the years of lead in Italy, such as . The other lawyer, Guido Salvini, is a prestigious former magistrate, now dedicated to the legal profession, who in the past investigated very dark plots, such as or .
Because of the cases she has had to handle throughout her career, Brigida warns that it is difficult for her to be surprised: “This story has surprised me to a certain extent: after having dealt with things like death flights, nothing surprises me anymore.” He points out that it is “a group of criminals” with a common profile: “Evil people, perhaps also ideologically motivated, passionate about weapons, who was going to shoot at shooting ranges.”
The two lawyers have joined this difficult battle for the truth that has begun with the presentation of a 17-page document to the Prosecutor’s Office that indicates a series of clues, indications and possible witnesses to be questioned. Threads that prosecutor Alessandro Gobbis, in charge of the case, can pull from now on.
“Obviously, our writing has been considered founded and serious, which deserved to be verified and investigated. The Prosecutor’s Office has opened an investigation, which has been delegated to the anti-terrorism section of the ROS [Raggruppamento Operativo Speciale, una unidad de los Carabinieri especializada en terrorismo]”, explains the lawyer.
“He was universally known,” says a writer
This news has created a stir in Italy, but the Italian writer and activist Adriano Sofri, who in those years was in Sarajevo and sent chronicles to Italian newspapers, published an article this Wednesday in which he stated that the phenomenon was “universally known.” What’s more, he says that the participants in this macabre activity were “enthusiastic and numerous.” In his article he has reproduced phrases from his texts from the time in which he talks about it, such as this one from May 17, 1995: “In Grbavica, where the snipers chetniks [milicia serbias ultranacionalistas] and the international venatory participation are not hidden, in fact, they are flaunted by Karadzic’s television, even when the target is children (smaller target, greater achievement for the shooter), there is also a Greek group and the notable case of a Japanese volunteer.” Sofri says that the latter explained to Bosnian Serb television that he had gone to shoot in Sarajevo “because of a disappointment in love.” In the same text, Sofri also cited that one of those who went to shoot was the ultranationalist Serbian Vojislav Sesejl, who knocked down a passerby in front of the cameras.
The Italian public ministry, indicates Brigida, is also acquiring the records of the different proceedings of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague for the crimes of the former Yugoslavia, held in recent decades. They refer to these “war tourists” in some witness statements. The former mayor of Sarajevo between 2021 and 2024, Benjamina Karic, has also sent a formal communication to the Milan court with the information she knows.
The case has not prescribed, explains Brigida, because since it is an extremely serious crime that is punishable by life imprisonment, which is contemplated in Italy, it never prescribes. “The Penal Code provides that, although the final phase of these crimes has been committed in another country, the jurisdiction of the Italian justice system is maintained and can be prosecuted in Italy. If not, the impunity of a citizen who goes abroad, commits horrible crimes and then takes refuge in Italy would be guaranteed,” he argues.
