Prosecutor Alessandro Gobbis expanded a homicide inquiry opened in late January after journalist and writer Ezio Gavazzeni filed a 17-page complaint alleging that wealthy Italian extremists once paid up to €100,000 to shoot civilians during the 1992–1996 siege of Sarajevo.
Court paperwork framed the suspected crimes as multiple counts of intentional homicide aggravated by cruelty and vile motives.
Gavazzeni’s filing carried endorsements from former investigating magistrate Guido Salvini and former Sarajevo mayor Benjamina Karić. The writer said he began gathering testimonies after watching the 2022 documentary Sarajevo Safari, whose anonymous witnesses described “rich foreigners engaged in inhumane activities.”
Central to the dossier is the claim that far-right “sniper tourists” left Trieste on Aviogenex flights to Belgrade, reached Bosnian Serb positions overlooking Sarajevo, and spent weekends hunting civilians. “We are talking about people with money, with reputation, businessmen, who during the siege of Sarajevo paid to be able to kill unarmed civilians,” said Gavazzeni, according to El Pais. The macabre price list ranked children as the most expensive targets, while killings of the elderly were allegedly free, according to La Repubblica.
Witnesses cited in the complaint include former Bosnian intelligence officer Edin Subašić, who said a captured Serb volunteer referred to “at least five Italians” in late 1993, and American firefighter John Jordan, who recalled seeing gunmen “who didn’t seem like locals” and who were escorted by Serbs.
The filing stated that Bosnian intelligence warned Italy’s SISMI in 1993 and that classified documents on the matter may still exist. A note reproduced in the dossier listed Milan, Turin, and Trieste as the home bases of several suspects, one of whom “owned a private clinic specialized in aesthetic surgeries,” reported La Nación.
“There was a price tag for these killings,” said lawyer Nicola Brigida, who co-signed the petition, to Público. He added that the file “includes elements that could allow the identification of the people who committed these monstrous crimes.”
Some observers disputed the story. Serbian war-veterans’ leader Veljko Lazić called it “an absolute and disgusting lie,” reported Politiken. Balkan analyst Tim Judah told the Independent, “I’m not saying it didn’t happen, but I don’t think the numbers would have been very large.”
Investigators said they had identified several individuals who would be summoned as witnesses and that three Italians were already under scrutiny, according to La Nación. Gavazzeni told T-Online, “I hope they can locate at least one or two, maybe 10,” later suggesting the number could be “many — not just a few dozen.”
“We are eager to discover the truth of such a cruel matter and settle accounts with the past,” said Bosnian consul in Milan Dag Dumrukcic, according to EL PAÍS English Edition, adding that Sarajevo would cooperate fully.
Gobbis’s office requested transcripts from the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, including Jordan’s 2007 testimony describing “tourist shooters” who showed up with hunting rifles “more suited to wild boar than to urban combat,” reported the Independent. Investigators also planned to question Slovenian filmmaker Miran Zupanič, whose documentary reignited public interest.
Under Italian law, voluntary homicide aggravated by cruelty carries a maximum life sentence. “The investigation uncovers a part of society that hides its truth under the carpet,” said Gavazzeni to La Nación, noting that the men now sought would be 65 to 80 years old—wealthy businessmen, academics, and gun enthusiasts who once boarded buses in Magenta and planes in Trieste before returning to comfortable lives.
Written with the help of a news-analysis system.