An Italian nobleman is one of several people being investigated over the killing of civilians in “human safaris” in Sarajevo during the Bosnian war.
The unnamed aristocrat from Milan – who has not been charged with any crimes – is under investigation by prosecutors and is to be questioned.
It was alleged that he paid to shoot civilians during the conflict 30 years ago.
He is one of at least five Italians under investigation on suspicion of having taken part in “human safaris” during the siege of Sarajevo from 1992 to 1995.
It is alleged that dozens of wealthy foreigners from Europe and Russia paid to be allowed to use sniper rifles to shoot civilians in streets and squares.
On Wednesday, Italian police seized a gun silencer, photographs and documents from the home of another suspect, a 64-year-old Italian man, near Alessandria. Experts are analysing the silencer to find out whether it is compatible with weapons used in Bosnia.
‘He told me he had nightmares’
The suspect’s ex-wife told prosecutors he used to have nightmares about killing civilians.
She said: “When we lived together, one night after we had watched a war film, he had a nightmare and woke up with a start, accidentally hitting me. He told me he had those nightmares, because in the past he had killed people during the war in Bosnia in the 90s.
“He told me he would leave Milan by plane and that with him there were other people who took part in these weekends during the war.
“He told me that he had started to take part when the war broke out in Yugoslavia, but then he stopped going on the weekends and spent longer periods there as a sniper, shooting Muslims.”
The woman said her ex-husband had a photograph of himself in military fatigues, which were “not a conventional uniform”. He also had a written pass, inscribed in a foreign language she did not understand, which authorised him to travel through the war zone.
She said: “On the back of this pass, there were markings which corresponded to the people killed during the fighting. There were circles and lines, a sort of tally.”
‘Could not have afforded sniper weekends’
The man, who hunted animals and worked for Genova city council before retiring, has not been named.
He has denied taking part in “human safaris”, insisting that he was fighting for Serb paramilitaries during the time he spent in Bosnia.
He has said that, as a council worker, he could not have afforded to pay to go on sniper weekends even if he had wanted to.
He told investigators he admired Italy’s Fascist movement, and was fascinated by the country’s paratrooper regiment and its special forces units.
The man is accused, along with three other Italians, of the aggravated murder of men, women and children who he allegedly shot from hill positions overlooking Sarajevo during the siege.
The others are an 80-year-old former lorry driver from Pordenone, a 64-year-old businessman from Brianza and a man from Tuscany.
It is alleged that the men, most of whom had far-Right political views, would meet in the northeastern city of Trieste then travel to Sarajevo.
Investigators create ‘psychopath’ profiles
Investigators have drawn up a psychological profile of the men, claiming they suffered from “psychopathy” and were devoid of “empathy, remorse or a sense of responsibility”.
Magistrates in Italy, Belgium and Austria are investigating the “human safari” allegations. They are due to meet later this month at Eurojust, the EU’s criminal justice cooperation agency in The Hague, to discuss their findings.
Allegations that wealthy foreigners took part in the horrific activity were made in a 2022 documentary, Sarajevo Safari, by Miran Zupanič, a Slovenian director.
Ezio Gavazzeni, an Italian journalist, then started looking into the alleged role of Italians. That led to prosecutors in Milan opening an investigation last year.
About 11,000 civilians were killed by shelling and sniper fire from Bosnian Serb positions on the hills around Sarajevo during the 1992 to 1995 war, which followed Bosnia’s declaration of independence from Yugoslavia.
It emerged last month that Austrian prosecutors were investigating an Austrian man over allegations he took part in the weekend sniper safaris.