Investigation into 'weekend snipers', Brianza entrepreneur heard by the Prosecutor. Sarajevo civil party

First the complaint to the public prosecutor's office, then the investigation. And now the hearings in front of the Prosecutor's Office and the city of Sarajevo entering a civil action. This is the evolution of the affair concerning the so-called 'weekend snipers', i.e., wealthy people who, between 1993 and 1995 "paid to shoot for fun at the citizens of Sarajevo, during the war in Yugoslavia".

Today, in fact, there was the hearing of a Brianza entrepreneur summoned by the Public Prosecutor of the Court of Milan, Alessandro Gobbis. 'We have clarified everything and now we will also make a statement,' commented defence lawyer Luigi Bruno Peronetti, 'there are no elements against him, so then we will see what the prosecutor's determinations will be. We have responded to what they challenged us. We have proved our extraneousness and we will also provide a statement'.

As part of the investigation, which started after the complaint filed in January 2025 by journalist Ezio Gavezzani, two more people were heard in recent days. Gavezzani had filed the complaint with the support of former magistrate Guido Salvini and lawyer Nicola Brigida. Hence the start of the investigation for voluntary manslaughter aggravated by cruelty and abject motives.

In his exposition, Gavezzini recounted a terrifying world. 'There were wealthy businessmen and professionals, from northern Italy but also from Spain, France, other European countries as well as Canada and USA,' he recalls, 'who paid to go to the mountains surrounding Sarajevo to shoot people. How did it work? 'While not going into details, it is clear that there was a precise organisation that allowed these people to be taken to the place where they could then freely shoot at innocent people'. Not only that: there was also the money game in the middle: 'Each participant paid an amount of money like what you would spend today to buy a three-room apartment in Piazzale Lotto in Milan'.

The case exploded again in 2022 when a Slovenian filmmaker, Miran Zupanič presented the documentary Sarajevo Safari. A film about the alleged war tourism in the city at the centre of the conflict. The there that, as Gavezzani recalls, set the machine in motion again. Now the further turn. "The city of Sarajevo joined the civil action on 21 April," adds Gavezzani, "and appointed my lawyers Guido Salvini, Nicola Brigida and the criminologist Martina Radice as representatives. That's not all, Gavezzani also adds another detail: 'We have just acquired from a Parisian lawyer a document of a witness who testified in the first arrondissement of Paris, new and important elements useful to the investigation and to understand a number of mechanisms'.