The public prosecutor's office in Milan has opened an investigation into claims that Italian citizens travelled to Bosnia on "sniper safaris" during the war in the early 1990s.
Italians and others are alleged to have paid large sums to shoot at civilians risking their lives to cross the city's main boulevard.
The Milan complaint was filed by journalist and novelist Ezio Gavazzeni, who describes a "manhunt" by "very wealthy people" with a passion for weapons who "paid to be able to kill defenceless civilians" from Serb positions in the hills around Sarajevo.
Different rates were charged to kill men, women or children, according to some reports.
More than 11,000 people died during the brutal four-year siege of Sarejevo.
