Condemnations of the attack on journalist Nedžad Latić, attacker's photo handed over to police

SARAJevo, (Patria) - The Social Democratic Party of BiH strongly condemns the attack on journalist and publicist Nedžad Latić, and has requested that the competent police and prosecution institutions urgently identify and severely punish the perpetrators of this attack.

- It is unacceptable that journalists in BiH are attacked today for their work. All of this is a consequence of the current government creating a private state, which does not ensure even the minimum security for anyone who does not accept their model of governance. Freedom of the media and freedom of expression are fundamental characteristics of any democratic society, and this attack shows that today's BiH is far from a state and society that ensures such freedom.

Condemnation also came from the Alliance for a Better Future and its president Fahrudin Radončić, who stated that such an attack is inadmissible in a democratic society.

Today, in a press release, journalist and publicist Nedžad Latić explained who attacked him and that he had duly reported everything to the police.

- Given that the media and the police did not react adequately to yesterday's attack on me, I am addressing the public for accurate information about the event.

Yesterday, I performed the ikindi prayer at the Kuwait Mosque in Čengić Vila. A person who cynically leaned into my face prayed next to me. I have known this person for several years, since I was involved in organizing the All-Bosniak Congress. He was the personal bodyguard of Haka Duljević, a construction entrepreneur from Ilidža, originally from Sjenica.

I think this person is also originally from Sandžak. He often drove Muamer Zukorlić, the mufti, who, incidentally, has his own private bodyguards in Sarajevo, hired by Duljević. The person in question is employed as a bodyguard because he is a member of the kickboxing club “Gazija”, which exclusively trains young men with a Salafist-Wahhabi image.

They often train in the gym next to the mosque in Čengić Vila, and five or six of them, perhaps after training, stop by for daily prayers, so I have very often seen my would-be killer.

That day, I was walking alone towards the building where I live, which is rare, as I always have two or three fellow worshippers with me. I was writing a message on my phone while walking and noticed two Wahhabis following me.

Near the building, I stopped and deliberately took out my phone to call a friend, a journalist, so that they would pass in front of me. The attacker turned into the first passage of the building, and I consciously continued to the second passage. He returned and walked towards me, asking me where the dentist was.

I shrugged, as I was talking on the phone, and I also didn't know there was a dentist there.

At that moment, he lunged at me and struck me twice in the head area. I managed to block and evade the other blows until I screamed in fear because he was making bloodthirsty noises like a tearing animal. Perhaps a seamstress from the salon ran out then, and he fled...

I called emergency services and the police. Two police officers came to the emergency room where I told them I knew the attacker, believing they would react immediately. However, they suggested that after the examination at the hospital, perhaps tomorrow, I should come to the police station and report the attacker.

I went to KUM where, despite all the paperwork, the staff received me very kindly and humanely and admitted me.

I came home and, deliberately, to show the devil's killers that I am not afraid of them!

Disappointed with the police's work, I decided to ask the mosque's caretaker, which is under video surveillance, to save the recording for me. I asked a friend who helped me organize the All-Bosniak Congress to find the attacker's identity, as he also knows him personally. Thus, I obtained a photograph which I am providing to the police for inspection.

This is the third case of an attack on me while going to the mosque.

Before that, I was attacked in Grbavica after the evening prayer and in front of the Bakar-baba mosque, and I no longer frequent those mosques. I am known as a person who prays the “beš-vakat” prayer in mosques, which includes dawn prayers, so such attacks are much more dangerous.

I was also attacked in the “Bristol” hotel by Muamer Zukorlić's bodyguard, in his presence, where the hotel security reacted very conscientiously, declaring Zukorlić persona non grata at that hotel.

I have duly documented all of this and reported it to the Ministers of Police Predrag Kurteš, Vedran Hadžović, as well as Bakir Izetbegović on May 3, 2017.

Since various manipulations of this event are possible, especially by pro-regime media, as this is a type of religious mafia centered in Novi Pazar and Germany, I ask the media to be fair in their reporting.

My assessment is that this attack was planned and ordered from those centers with the intention of the attacker killing me! Keep in mind that I recently had a heart attack and am in very poor health - Nedžad Latić's statement reads.