Former truck driver, now 80, allegedly one of many ‘sniper tourists’ who paid Bosnian Serb soldiers to be allowed fire on city
An elderly Italian man is under investigation as part of an investigation by prosecutors in Milan into individuals who allegedly paid members of the Bosnian Serb army for trips to Sarajevo so they could kill citizens during the four-year siege of the city in the 1990s.
The 80-year-old is being investigated on charges of aggravated murder, a source close to the case told the Guardian. The man, a former truck driver from the northern Italian region of Veneto, is the first suspect to be placed under investigation since the inquiry began in November.
According to reports in the Italian press, he is alleged to have bragged about “conducting a manhunt”.
More than 10,000 people were killed in Sarajevo by shelling and sniper fire between 1992 and 1996 in the longest siege in modern history, after Bosnia and Herzegovina declared independence from Yugoslavia.
