Bosnić and others face up to 10 years in prison

If the Prosecutor's Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina proves the responsibility of 16 individuals, members of the so-called Wahhabi movement in Bosnia and Herzegovina, whom SIPA arrested this morning in an operation codenamed "Damascus", they face a sentence of up to ten years in prison, writes the BiH news agency Patria (NAP).

Police officers of the State Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA) launched an operation codenamed "Damascus" this morning, which is being carried out in a wider area of BiH. Within this operation, 16 people were arrested, including the alleged leader of the so-called Wahhabi community in Bosnia and Herzegovina. SIPA searched premises at 17 locations in the areas of Sarajevo, Kiseljak, Zenica, Maglaj (Ošve and Gornja Bočinja), Srebrenik (Gornja Maoča), Zvornik, Tuzla, Kalesija, Banovići, Bužim, and Teslić, SIPA announced.

The individuals are suspected of committing criminal offenses of financing terrorist activities, public incitement to terrorist activities, recruitment for terrorist activities, organizing a terrorist group, all in connection with the criminal offense of terrorism. They are linked to the financing, organizing, and recruitment of BiH citizens to go to Syria and Iraq, and participation in armed conflicts in Syria and Iraq, fighting on the side of radical terrorist groups and organizations such as ISIS, ISIL/Islamic State, Jabhat al-Nusra, and others.

The arrested individuals are: Bilal Bosnić, Hamdo Fojnica, Muhamed Džerahović, Emin Hodžić, Adem Karamuja, Mirza Kapić, Safet Brkić, Ibro Delić, Eduard Turguti, Senad Hukić, Enes Mešić, Elvir Muratović, Sedin Huseinović, Fikret Zukić, Avdulah Hasanović, and Jasmin Jašarević.

Each of the arrested individuals faces a prison sentence ranging from one to even ten years. Namely, according to the Criminal Code of Bosnia and Herzegovina, anyone who, contrary to the Law on Service in the Armed Forces of Bosnia and Herzegovina, organizes, leads, trains, equips, or mobilizes individuals or groups of people with the aim of joining, in any way, a foreign military, foreign paramilitary, or foreign parapolice formation operating outside of Bosnia and Herzegovina, shall be punished with a prison sentence of at least five years.

According to this law, anyone who joins a foreign military, foreign paramilitary, or foreign parapolice formation, trained, equipped, or mobilized within the meaning of paragraph (1) of this article, in any way, shall be punished with a prison sentence of at least three years.

A citizen of Bosnia and Herzegovina who acquires or prepares means, removes obstacles, creates a plan, or conspires with others, or recruits another, or takes any other action that creates conditions for the direct commission of this criminal offense, shall be punished with a prison sentence of one to ten years.

Anyone who publicly, through the media, distributes or in any other way conveys a message to the public, which aims to incite another to commit this criminal offense, shall be punished with a prison sentence of three months to three years, writes NAP.

According to the same Criminal Code of Bosnia and Herzegovina, citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina who are fighting on the Russo-Ukrainian battlefield may also be held accountable, writes NAP.

See the arrest of Bilal Bosnić HERE.