Italian media: 80-year-old under investigation for 'Sarajevo safari'

(Patria) - An elderly man is the first person against whom the Milan prosecutor's office has initiated proceedings as part of an investigation into allegations that Italian citizens came to positions around besieged Sarajevo during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina to shoot from sniper rifles, the Italian newspaper Il Giorno reported today.

According to the newspaper, a summons for questioning was sent to the 80-year-old former truck driver who lives near Pordenone.

This is the first concrete step taken by the team led by Alessandro Gobbis from the Milan Public Prosecutor's Office following the launch of the investigation into the so-called Sarajevo safari.

The investigation is being conducted on suspicion that Italians paid to kill Sarajevo residents during the siege from positions held by Bosnian Serb army members, Hina reports.

Il Giorno states that the unnamed 80-year-old is suspected of having, "in collusion with other, currently unknown persons," carried out "the same criminal plan, causing the death of unarmed civilians, including women, the elderly, and children, by shooting from sniper rifles from the hills surrounding Sarajevo between 1992 and 1995."

The first hearing is scheduled for February 9.

The man is under investigation because he allegedly boasted to others that he had been "hunting people" in Sarajevo during the siege.

Based on testimonies recorded during witness interrogations, investigators and prosecutors identified the 80-year-old and decided to investigate him for manslaughter, or rather for multiple incidents, and summon him for questioning.

The former truck driver received the prosecutor's summons today, and the Carabinieri also searched his home, finding seven legal firearms: two pistols, a rifle, and four shotguns.

Earlier, investigators determined that the man had traveled to the former Yugoslavia several times during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which was confirmed by the company he worked for.

The investigation in Milan into the so-called Sarajevo safari, or man-hunting, as the Italian newspaper writes, also has an international dimension, as France, Switzerland, and Belgium are also taking measures, partly because the "snipers," according to available documents, were not exclusively Italians.

Meanwhile, the Milan prosecutor's office is working to identify other alleged snipers, and there is reportedly another specific name involved.