Bosnian Islamist militant jailed for 45 years over terrorist attack

Reuters/December 20, 2013

Haris Causevic planted bomb at police station in 2010, killing one officer, hoping to destabilise country

A Bosnian court has sentenced an Islamist radical to 45 years in prison for a 2010 bomb attack on a police station in which one officer was killed and several injured.

The sentence handed down on Friday was the longest in Bosnia for an offence other than a war crime.

Haris Causevic planned, organised and carried out a terrorist act in the central town of Bugojno on 27 June 2010, aiming to intimidate the population, coerce the authorities and destabilise the country, said presiding judge of the state court, Goran Radevic.

"The council of judges has decided to jail Haris Causevic to a maximum prison term of 45 years to express the public condemnation of the act he committed," said Radevic.

Naser Palislamovic, who was accused along with Causevic over the attack, was acquitted due to lack of evidence.

Causevic planted an improvised explosive device by the back wall of the police station that was detonated by slow fuse in the early hours. He was caught running away.

Six men were originally charged with the crime, three of them under terrorism laws. Three others were accused of assisting the attack but their trial has been delayed.

One of the three accused of terrorism made a deal with the prosecution to testify against Causevic and was sentenced to 14 years, last year.

All six men were members of the Wahhabi branch of Islam, which gained a foothold in Bosnia after the 1992-95 war. The bombing was one of the most serious security incidents in Bosnia since the war.

Last month, Bosnia's appeals court jailed an Islamist gunman for 15 years, for opening fire on the US embassy in 2011, seriously wounding a police officer.

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