The investigation into the so-called “human safaris” in Sarajevo – wealthy foreigners who allegedly paid to shoot and kill civilians during the fratricidal wars of the nineties in the region—has finally reached the doors of European justice. So much so that, as EL PERIÓDICO was able to confirm, Eurojustthe European Union agency for criminal judicial cooperation based in The Hague, will meet this coming Monday with the Milan Prosecutor’s Officethe same one that opened the first procedure last year.
When asked, the organization did not want to specify the objective of the meeting and has even advanced that, in all probability, its content will not be reported once it has occurred. But different Italian media, including the newspapers ‘Corriere della Sera’ and ‘Il Giorno’, assure that the main objective would be to coordinate an international strategy for an investigation that is no longer exclusively Italian, after the opening of procedures in at least three other European countries.
Austria and Belgium
The first of these countries is Austria, where an investigation has been opened with at least one suspect already identified, while in Belgium there are also open proceedings, as well as in Bosnia-Herzegovina, where, however, the progress is currently unknown.
In the Italian case, furthermore, the investigation, led by prosecutors Paolo Gobbis and Marcello Violamaintains for the moment four Italians suspected of having allegedly committed a crime of intentional homicide. The first known investigator was a octogenarian from Friuli (northern Italy)former truck driver and worker. During the search of his home in San Vito al Tagliamento, according to information published by the Italian press, the investigators found, among other objects, a bust of the dictator Benito Mussolini. However, his defense has rejected the accusations and maintains that there is no evidence linking him to the events.
Another of those investigated is a businessman from Brianza (Lombardy) with a high economic capacity who, according to the hypothesis of the Prosecutor’s Office, would have been part of a small circle of hunting fans — “rich and boring” professionals, managers and businessmen, according to Gavazzeni’s description — who sought an extreme form of adrenaline in war-torn Bosnia. The businessman has also chosen not to respond and has presented a document in which he describes the entire investigation as “fantasies.” The other two investigated are a man from Piedmont y a tuscan hunter.
Hunting fans
The case was initially opened following complaints filed by the writer Ezio Gavazzenitogether with the lawyers Guido Salvini and Nicola Brigida. For years, Gavazzeni has collected testimonies that point to the existence of citizens who paid to shoot civilians during the Bosnian war, a practice that for decades barely existed scattered journalistic stories and that never aroused the interest of justice. However, sources close to the investigation have also leaked that the investigations are hanging by a thread, with difficulties in gathering sufficient evidence to request the opening of a trial.
The Italian investigation, furthermore, is no longer limited to those four names. The Prosecutor’s Office has taken statements in recent months from numerous witnesses who claim to have known or heard stories about these trips, while continuing to contrast documents and testimonies coming from Bosnia and Italy. Therefore, a good part of the effort now consists of verify events that occurred more than thirty years ago and find objective elements that support an accusation of homicide. Something that is still not clear at all.
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