An Austrian citizen, suspected of being a “sniper tourist” during the siege of Sarajevo in the 1990s and allegedly paid to shoot innocent civilians, is under investigation by the Vienna prosecutor’s office, the Austrian government announced.

The Austrian Ministry of Justice announced on Tuesday the launch of investigations into the Austrian citizen, which began in April, in response to a parliamentary request from the former Minister of Justice, Alma Zadic, who is also the spokesperson of the Green Party for justice issues.

The Ministry added that another suspect, still unidentified, is under investigation.

According to the authorities, at this stage of the investigation there are valid grounds for suspicion against the persons involved.

The suspects are accused of having participated in the so-called “sniper tours” in Sarajevo during the war in Bosnia. According to the claims, foreign men were paid up to 100,000 euros to shoot people in the besieged city.

Claims about these “sniper tours” were published by Italian journalist and author Ezio Gavazzeni.

However, the ministry said that the Austrian investigations are not based on Gavazzeni’s research and it is not known whether Austrian authorities or diplomatic missions had earlier access to the information of

In a statement on Wednesday, Green Party lawmaker Alma Zadic welcomed the investigations, saying the allegations constituted “the most serious war crimes” and should be fully investigated.

During the siege of Sarajevo from 1992 to 1996, Serbian forces surrounded and bombarded the city, killing more than 11,500 civilians, including over 1,600 children, while the cultural heritage and infrastructure of the city suffered great damage.

Source: prizrenpost