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ADDS court imposes restrictive measures on five suspects
Bosnia prosecutors announced on Tuesday an investigation into the involvement of “radical religious groups” in the murder of a policeman, with media reporting that the alleged suspect was linked to a Quranic school.
Last week, a 14-year-old boy stabbed to death an officer in a police station in Bosanska Krupa, a small town some 300 kilometres (186 miles) northwest of the capital Sarajevo.
The attacker, a high-school student who, according to local media, had attended an unofficial Quranic school run in the town by members of an Islamist movement, also wounded another officer before he was arrested.
He was remanded in custody for 30 days as the anti-terrorist prosecutor’s office took over the investigation.
Eight people were arrested at the weekend in Bosanska Krupa and the neighbouring town of Bihac over their possible links with the attack.
Three were released, a prosecutors’ office statement said while, according to the BIRN BiH portal that reports on judicial matters, a state court judge imposed restrictive measures on the other five.
Three of them were placed under house arrest and two were banned from leaving Bosanska Krupa, the portal reported.
The five are suspected of having a “direct link with the minor who committed the terrorist act and his indoctrination”, the prosecutors’ office statement said.
The prosecutors said they were investigating “radical and non-institutional religious groups suspected of being linked to the terrorist act”.
The murder was “qualified as terrorist because its motive was to attack a police station with the aim of intimidating the population”, prosecutor Merima Mesanovic said.
Police said they had seized weapons, ammunition, telephones, computers, hard disks, money, and documents with texts written in Arabi.
Local media reported that all the suspects were either members or teachers of the Quranic school in Bosanska Krupa.
Around half of Bosnia’s 3.5 million inhabitants are Muslims, the rest being Orthodox Christians or Catholics.
While the overwhelming majority practise a moderate form of Islam, some believers are followers of radical Islamic movements.
Between 250 and 300 Bosnians left for Syria and Iraq between 2012 and 2016 to join the Islamic State group, according to local authorities.
Some 20 percent of them were children.
rus/ljv/bc