Human sniper safari suspect made chilling boast before being called in to testify about crimes
A suspect who was questioned over claims he participated in a 'human safari' in Sarajevo allegedly boasted about being part of it before being taken in for questioning.
In 1992 the Bosnian capital city of Sarajevo was put under siege, beginning a hellish experience for the around 400,000 people living there that would last for almost four years.
The people trapped in the besieged city struggled to access supplies of food, water and medicine, with some being cut off entirely, and they also had to survive soldiers taking shots at them.
Sarajevo's main boulevard became known as 'Sniper Alley', and claims that not everyone taking a shot at civilians was a soldier has prompted an investigation into the possibility that wealthy individuals paid large sums of money to take part in a 'human safari' where they'd be escorted into the city and allowed to snipe people.
Other claims include there being different prices for shooting different people, with higher fees demanded for those who wanted to kill women and children.
Earlier this year an Italian investigation into claims of 'human safaris' called an 80-year-old man in for questioning, and El Pais reported that the old man was a former truck driver who had allegedly boasted about 'hunting men' in Sarajevo.
After being questioned by prosecutors and having his house searched the man claimed he had no involvement with people paying money to go into Sarajevo and kill people, saying he had gone to Bosnia in the 1990s to work and 'not to hunt'.
Prosecutors were also investigating others who they believe participated, with El Pais reporting that they were identified by people who knew them saying they'd spoken about participating in 'human safaris' and even boasting about it, though such allegations of involvement remain unproven.
Italian journalist Ezio Gavazzeni had filed a complaint about the alleged sniper tourism taking place during the siege of Sarajevo, during which over 11,000 people were killed.
Other journalists have also spoken out about it, while Gavazzeni has said that testimony from people who witnessed it will be the most powerful tool in uncovering what happened.
Bosnian woman Fatima Popovac claims sniper tourists were responsible for killing her six-year-old son over 30 years ago.
She said: "I cannot understand how someone could kill a child for amusement. What harm could a 6-year-old child possibly have done to anyone?
"I cannot even imagine that those who carried these out could be in human form. I wish I could see that monster—what they look like, what they resemble. Do they carry no humanity at all?"
Investigations into allegations of a 'human safari' during the siege of Sarajevo are ongoing, though official evidence is hard to find and some witnesses who might have been able to further explain what happened have since died.
Gavazzeni said that in 1993 Italian secret services opened a file on sniper safaris which said five people had been identified and intercepted in the hills around Sarajevo.
A timeline of the Sarajevo 'human safari' allegations
5 April 1992
The Siege of Sarajevo begins. For almost four years, the 400,000 inhabitants of the city suffer from shelling and snipers, with many cut off from food, water, medicine and electricity.
Late 1993
Bosnian military intelligence officer Edin Subasic comes across testimony from a Serbian volunteer. He later tells El Pais the man spoke about seeing ‘five Italians who had hunting equipment and expensive weapons’ who described themselves as ‘hunters who paid Serbs in Sarajevo to shoot people in the city’.
Edin Subasic in the documentary Sarajevo Safari (Arsmedia)
29 February 1996
The Siege of Sarajevo ends.
2007
Former US Marine John Jordan testifies to the International Criminal Court about ‘tourist shooters’. He said: “I never saw one of these tourist shooters take a shot. I just saw them being handled and moved around known sniper positions.
"It was clearly obvious that the person being led by men who were familiar with the ground was completely unfamiliar with the ground, and his manner of dress and the weapons they carried led me to believe they were tourist shooters.”
2014
Luca Leone writes in his book The B***ards of Sarajevo of European tourists paying at checkpoints managed by Serbian paramilitaries in Croatia and Bosnia to shoot civilians in Sarajevo.
A Bosnian man rushed across a Sarajevo street infamous for sniper fire in 1992 (David Turnley/Corbis/VCG via Getty Images)
2022
The documentary Sarajevo Safari by Slovenian director Miran Zupanic further drags the murky details of the alleged human safaris into the public eye.
The film includes testimony from Subasic and an unnamed Slovenian source who worked for ‘an important American agency’. The latter claims in the film to have seen ‘how, for certain sums of money, strangers would come in to shoot at the surrounded citizens of Sarajevo’.
November 2025
The public prosecutor's office in Milan opens an investigation into claims Italian citizens were involved in the ‘human safaris’, after journalist and author Ezio Gavazzeni filed a legal complaint.
Meanwhile, US congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna says she has opened her own investigation and vows: “If there are any Americans who have engaged in this, they deserve to be charged and prosecuted.”
February 2026
An 80-year-old Italian truck driver allegedly becomes the first suspect investigated over the ‘human safaris’.
Topics: World News, Crime
Joe Harker