Italian prosecutors in Milan have launched an investigation into shocking allegations that wealthy tourists from Italy and other countries paid to shoot at civilians during the Bosnian war in the early 1990s. The so-called “sniper safaris” allegedly took place in the besieged city of Sarajevo, where participants reportedly paid varying amounts to target men, women, and even children from Serb-controlled positions overlooking the city.

The complaint was filed by Italian journalist and novelist Ezio Gavazzeni, who uncovered testimonies from Bosnian intelligence officers claiming that these “human hunts” were discovered in late 1993 and stopped months later after Italy’s military intelligence service, Sismi, was informed. Gavazzeni’s findings, supported by accounts from Sarajevo’s former mayor and evidence seen in the 2022 documentary Sarajevo Safari, suggest that individuals from several countries — including Italy, the US, and Russia — were involved.

Authorities in Milan, led by counter-terrorism prosecutor Alessandro Gobbis, are now examining the evidence under charges of murder. The investigation seeks to confirm whether Italian nationals participated in these paid killing sprees that took place during the brutal four-year siege of Sarajevo, which claimed over 11,000 civilian lives. Gavazzeni condemned the alleged acts as the “indifference of evil,” underscoring the moral depravity of those who treated a war zone as a hunting ground.

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