SERBIAN president Aleksandar Vučić has blasted “malicious” allegations that he took part in twisted “human safari” sniper trips during the bloody siege of Sarajevo.
Vučić, 55, hit back after Croatian journalist Domagoj Margetić filed a complaint with Milan prosecutors, sensationally claiming the leader helped organise alleged murder tourism outings.
Prosecutors in Milan launched a probe earlier this month into allegations that wealthy foreign thrill-seekers were ferried to sniper nests above Sarajevo and allowed to pick off unarmed civilians, supposedly shelling out up to £88,000 a head for the grim experience.
Now Margetić has claimed that Vučić was with a Bosnian Serb militia that operated from the Jewish cemetery used as a vantage point for the blood sport.
Shocking footage resurfaced of a young Vučić allegedly holding a sniper rifle in the very graveyard Margetić highlights as one of the nest.
Vučić’s media adviser has now Suzana Vasiljević blasted the bombshell accusations as “malicious disinformation” cooked up to smear Serbia and its president.
SMOKING GUN?
Serbian president accused of involvement in sick Sarajevo ‘human safaris’
In relation to the startling clip, she writes: “The supposed “proof” periodically recycled by certain opposition outlets – a photograph showing him carrying a tripod as journalistic equipment has long been publicly debunked as a crude falsification.”
Vasiljević said the timeline put forward by Margetić “fully contradicts any attempt to link him to alleged events predating that period.”
Her rebuttal rests on the evidence that Vučić was just a young journalist and translator in Pale in 1992–93, and only returned to the Sarajevo area once in 1994 as part of a one-day political delegation.
She added that the president “never fought, never carried a weapon and never took part in any wartime operations”.
Italian prosecutors continue to investigate the claims that tourists from Italy, Russia, Canada, USA and even the UK made covert weekend trips to take part in the twisted outings.
Sarajevo residents lived in perpetual fear of taking a bullet during a siege of the city that left more than 11,500 dead.
Meša Selimović Boulevard, the main road running into the city, was nicknamed “Sniper Alley” because traversing it was so dangerous.
Allegations first came to light in the 2022 documentary “Sarajevo Safari”, by Slovenian filmmaker Miran Zupanic.
In the movie, he gathered testimonies which built a picture of wealthy tourists visiting the city for blood-sport.
Gavazzeni picked up the work and ultimately took his evidence to the authorities.
Former magistrate Guido Salvini and Benjamina Karic, mayor of Sarajevo from 2021 to 2024, also put their names to the complaint.
The Bosnian Attorney General’s Office apparently shelved a previous investigation into the “sniper tourism” because it was too difficult in a country still scarred by war, Gavazzeni told La Repubblica.
The writer said: “We are talking about wealthy people, with reputations – businessmen – who during the siege of Sarajevo paid to kill unarmed civilians.
“They left Trieste for a manhunt and then returned to their respectable daily lives.”
Lead prosecutor Alessandro Gobbi is understood to have a list of several people who can provide testimony and may be called to give evidence.
Gavazzeni said that there could be up to 100 tourists who took part in the weekend sniper tours.
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“I hope they can locate at least one or two, maybe 10,” he said.
The case mentions a Milanese businessman who owns a private cosmetic surgery clinic, as well as citizens from Turin and Trieste, El Pais reported.