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An Italian aristocrat obsessed with collecting military weaponry is accused of paying a hefty sum to hunt innocent people during the twisted “human safari” killings under the cover of the Bosnian war.
The unidentified man, who comes from a wealthy family from Milan, allegedly cashed high amounts of money to join snipers in Sarajevo during the mid-90s war, according to The Times of London on Wednesday.
The trigger-happy killers allegedly stationed themselves with Serbian gunmen on hills above the Bosnian city, where the foreigners fired at citizens below as war ravaged the area.
The man is wanted for questioning by magistrates in Italy. He allegedly boasted multiple times about his trip to Sarajevo during dinner conversations with his close pals.
“I was approached by a witness who reported the aristocrat had boasted to friends about the safari more than once over dinner,” investigative writer Ezio Gavazzeni told the outlet. “I believe the friends have also been questioned.”
Italian investigators have already questioned four alleged shooters since allegations of the high society murder tours first came out in the 2022 documentary “Sarajevo Safari.”
The home of one of the suspects was raided and a silencer was recovered on Wednesday by police in the city of Alessandria, 60 miles south of Milan, the outlet reported.
The man had allegedly told his ex-partner that he had flown to Sarajevo with “people who became snipers at weekends to kill Muslims.”
The ex-partner, who was not identified, showed police a photo of a permit the man had used to enter the war zones and tallys he kept of his alleged kills, according to the report.
More than 10,000 people were killed in Sarajevo by snipers and shelling between 1992 and 1996.
Gavazzeni previously uncovered evidence that sniper tourists paid north of $90,000 to shoot people, including women and kids.
In addition to the high prices to get in, the hunters also allegedly paid additional fees to shoot children and pregnant women, the outlet reported.
Since the drop of the documentary, magistrates across Europe opened investigations into the high society citizens of their countries.
“There were Germans, French, English … people from all Western countries who paid large sums of money to be taken there to shoot civilians,” Gavazzeni said
The paid-for hunters met Serbian militants at the vantage point at Sarajevo’s Jewish cemetery.
“They wore expensive leather jackets and I was told they were Italians, Germans and British,” former Serbian tank unit volunteer Aleksandar Licanin told The Times. “They were helped to find targets, and shooting from the cemetery was a clear shot — you had everything.”
Magistrates in several countries are expected to convene the European Union Agency for Criminal Justice Cooperation at The Hague on June 29, to discuss the various investigations into the “safaris.”
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