Sarajevo Airport: Abdulaziz Osman Kekić and Muharem Smajić, who fought in Syria, arrested

Police officers of the State Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA) on 16.2.2016, at Sarajevo International Airport, arrested individuals with initials M.S. (1972) from Gračanica and O.A.K. (1970) from Bosanska Dubica after they were extradited from Turkey.  

After their arrest at the airport, the two suspects, Kekić Osman Abdulaziz (1970) and Smajić Muharem (1972), will be handed over to the acting prosecutor of the Terrorism Department of the BiH Prosecutor's Office, who will question them and then decide on further actions, the BiH Prosecutor's Office announced.  

The mentioned individuals were arrested by order of the BiH Prosecutor's Office, due to grounds for suspicion that they committed the criminal offense from Article 202d paragraph (2) of the BiH Criminal Code, "Organizing a Terrorist Group", in connection with Article 201 of the BiH Criminal Code, "Terrorism".

The mentioned individuals are suspected of having stayed in the Syrian battlefield in the past period, where they participated in armed conflicts on the side of ISIL.  During the work on this case, very good police cooperation was achieved at the national (Border Police BiH, OSA and FUP) and international level, which resulted in the extradition of the mentioned individuals from Turkey after they spent a certain period in custody there.

The BiH Prosecutor's Office and security agencies are receiving an increasing number of contacts from BiH citizens who are in Syria and Iraq, asking BiH institutions to return them to Bosnia and Herzegovina due to unbearable living conditions and danger to life and security in the mentioned area.

The mentioned individuals also express their readiness for plea bargains and serving sentences upon return to BiH.  In all cases, the BiH Prosecutor's Office and partner police and security agencies will act in accordance with the law and in the interest of the fight against terrorism and all activities related to terrorism.

The BiH judiciary once again reminds all BiH citizens that it has the instruments and personnel capacity to detect and prosecute phenomena related to terrorism, and that under no circumstances should they engage in going to foreign battlefields, which is also prohibited by law for BiH citizens.

The arrested individuals were taken to the official premises of SIPA, where, after criminal processing in accordance with the instructions of the acting prosecutor of the BiH Prosecutor's Office, their further status will be decided.

(acz- el)