BOSNIA: Bosnia Court Confirms Indictment of Nefail Cehic for Threats to Detektor Journalists

The Municipal Court in Sarajevo confirmed an indictment filed by the Cantonal Prosecution, charging Nefail Cehic with the crime of “jeopardizing security” by sending serious threats to the life of staff members of Detektor newsroom of Balkan Investigative Reporting Network of Bosnia and Herzegovina, BIRN BiH, from his Facebook profile. The threats were sent to Detektor’s Facebook page.

The indictment alleges that, on August 7, 2020 Cehic threatened the lives of persons employed at the BIRN BiH newsroom, aware that it would jeopardize their security and cause disturbance, which was his intention, by sending a message containing threats from his Facebook profile “Beauty of Nature” to the Facebook profile of Detektor in Sarajevo.

The defendant cursed and insulted BIRN BiH journalists, mentioning the terrorist organization of ISIL and pointing out, among other things: “All of you should be summarily [executed]”, which, as stated in the indictment, caused the feelings of risk to life as well as distress among the newsroom staff.

Cehic sent the message after BIRN BiH published an analysis and the 116th episode of TV Justice titled “Can former ISIL fighters also be tried in BiH for war crimes?”

The episode speaks about the possibility of trying returnees from the Syrian battlefronts for war crimes in addition to terrorism, which is the practice in several European countries, increasing the sentences for joining the terrorist organization of the so-called Islamic State.

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