Headlines

Italy Probes 'Sniper Tourism' Claims in Sarajevo Siege

NOV 12 2025·Updated NOV 13 2025

Story

Above: People commemorate the siege of Sarajevo on May 5, 2025. Image credit: Samir Jordamovic/Anadolu/Getty Images

The Facts

Public prosecutors in Milan have opened an investigation into allegations that wealthy foreigners, including Italians, paid Bosnian Serb forces between €80,000 and €100,000 ($92,715 and $115,894) in today’s money to shoot civilians during the 1992-1996 siege of Sarajevo.
The Telegraph
Metro
Journalist Ezio Gavazzeni initiated the investigation after filing a complaint to the prosecutors along with his evidence, which included testimony from a former Bosnian intelligence officer about alleged foreign participation in civilian shootings.
La Repubblica
BBC News
The Times (UK)
Speaking to La Repubblica, Gavazzeni, whose interest in the area was rekindled by the 2022 documentary "Sarajevo Safari," alleged that at least 100 “war tourists” were involved and that Italy’s then-military intelligence service, SISMI, was aware of the situation and intervened.
La Repubblica
According to witness accounts, the participants would arrive in Trieste before traveling to the hills surrounding Sarajevo, where Bosnian Serb militias under the command of Radovan Karadzic would grant them access to sniper positions.
La Repubblica
Independent
The US Sun
The witnesses also claimed that a price list existed for the killings, with the tourists paying more to kill children and men in uniform than for women and the elderly, the latter of which the snipers were allegedly allowed to kill for free.
ANSA.it
New York Post
The Telegraph
In 2007, a former U.S. Marine, John Jordan, testified to the U.N.’s International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia that he had witnessed tourist shooters in Sarajevo, describing one such sniper with a rifle “more suited to wild boar hunting in the Black Forest than to urban combat in the Balkans.” Meanwhile, British forces — who served in the area during the conflict — have said that such activities would have been "logistically difficult to accomplish."
International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia
Arab News
TVP World
BBC News

Sources Split

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The Spin

Narrative A

The evidence dutifully collected by Gavazzeni reveals the depth of human depravity. Wealthy elites allegedly used their status to systematically murder defenseless civilians, including women and children, with perhaps at least 100 individuals involved. If the claims are proven true, it will be one of the worst scandals of modern times.

La Repubblica

Mario Nawfal on X

Narrative B

The explosive claims about sniper tourism during the siege of Sarajevo are nothing more than heinous lies designed to insult the Republic of Serbia, its armed forces and its people. Organizations representing Serbian war victims have rightfully condemned these fabricated accusations for the falsehoods that they are.