Aleksandar Vučić has been accused of participating in ‘human safaris'(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
The current president of Serbia has been accused of being involved in alleged “human safaris“, where rich tourists paid thousands to kill innocent civilians for fun.
Shocking claims that foreigners paid £70,000 for a weekend trip to shoot people in Sarajevo, while the city was under siege in the ’90s, have been filed at a court in Milan. The capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina suffered in a four-year long military blockade, when it was besieged by Serb forces, between 1996 and 1992. A Croatian journalist also filed a complaint to the case in Milan, claiming Serbia’s president Aleksandar Vučić helped to organise and even participated in the alleged horror human hunting sessions.
Aleksandar Vučić allegedly holding a rifle in a militia post, in the 90s(Image: YouTube/ Sandžak Avaz)
READ MORE: ‘My 6-year-old son was killed by a sniper on a human safari trip to Sarajevo’READ MORE: Tourists ‘paid £70,000 to shoot people in human safari hunting trip’ during war
Investigative journalist Domagoj Margetic claimed Vučić was involved between 1992 and 1993 – when he supposedly volunteered in a Bosnian Serb militia.
The shocking allegations have come after a chilling video, of a the leader of the militia leader, Slavko Aleksic, standing next to a car with a human skull on the bonnet, resurfaced. The skull was allegedly from the apparent human safari trips, and was wearing a UN helmet.
The Serbian president was accused of holding a rifle but he reportedly claimed it was an umbrella(Image: YouTube/ Sandžak Avaz)
Margetic, on his social media, claimed he had evidence of Vučić, when he was in his 20s, on the expeditions. The journalist said: “I have informed the Public Prosecutor’s Office in Milan in a report of all my knowledge about Aleksandar Vučić’s connection with human safaris in wartime Sarajevo.”
Vučić denied these allegations and a spokesperson claimed it was “a textbook case of malicious disinformation, purpose-built to erode the institutional credibility of the Republic of Serbia and its president”.
Civilians in Sarajevo hiding from snipers in 1993(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
The spokesperson said the president had been working as a journalist and translator at the time, in a nearby town called Pale. They added that Vučić “did not participate in combat activities, did not use weapons, and had no role in any wartime operations”.
In a letter to prosecutors in Milan, Margetic said he had “evidence” the president was a “war volunteer”, for the New Sarajevo Chetnik Detachment of the Army of Republika Srpska – led by Aleksic. This militia used a Jewish cemetery as a frontline location for snipers.
A Bosnian special forces soldier returns fire from snipers in 1992(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
The journalist also told the Milan court that Vučić, in a 1994 interview, said he signed up as a volunteer during the siege of Sarajevo. Margetic also cited a 1993 video which he claimed showed the current president carrying a rifle, with other armed men in the Jewish cemetery.
Vučić has claimed he was holding an umbrella and not a firearm, Bosnian media has reported. His spokesperson claimed it was a tripod he was using as a journalist.
The Serbian president has previously denied shooting anybody during the Sarajevo siege and maintained that he was just working as a journalist at the time. In a 2021 TV interview, he said: “I can’t listen to nonsense and lies. I didn’t shoot, but I was at Pale, doing my job.”
More than 10,000 people died during the siege of Sarajevo(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
Italian investigative journalist Ezio Gavazzeni filed the complaint in court last week. He claimed some rich foreigners “paid to be able to kill defenceless civilians”, with different rates charged for men, women or children – with kids reportedly costing more.
He alleged travellers, who allegedly had ties to far-right groups, would fly from Trieste to Belgrade, on the Serbian airline Aviogenex. They would then supposedly go to the hills that surrounded Sarajevo and hit innocent civilians on the ground, from Serbian positions.