THREE PERSONS ARRESTED IN BIHAĆ FOR SPREADING RELIGIOUS HATRED

ISTOČNO SARAJEVO, OCTOBER 7 /SRNA/ – Officers of the State Investigation and Protection Agency of BiH /SIPA/ arrested three individuals in the Bihać area on suspicion of committing the criminal offense of inciting national, racial, and religious hatred, discord, or intolerance.

This morning, under the order of the Municipal Court Bihać and under the supervision of the Una-Sana Canton Prosecutor's Office, SIPA officers conducted searches at three locations in the Bihać area. During the searches, they discovered and temporarily seized items that may serve as evidence in further proceedings. After being processed and questioned as suspects, the arrested individuals will be handed over to the Una-Sana Canton Prosecutor’s Office, announced SIPA. The operation was carried out in cooperation with the Una-Sana Canton Ministry of Interior. Media outlets report that among the arrested is Islamist Adil Đenanović, who, at the end of September, disturbed a Serb family in Bihać for playing the song "Veseli se srpski rode", while shouting "Takbir – Allahu Akbar" outside their house. In a video, Đenanović says he is in a place where "a Chetnik or a Chetnik woman played `Veseli se srpski rode`", adding that local residents confirmed to him that the police did their job and expressing hope that it won't happen again. "Takbir! Allahu Akbar! Let's see who will dare to play it again," Đenanović says in the video, wearing a headband with Arabic script. On social media, Đenanović shares radical Islamist messages and views of Islamist theologians. He also poses in shirts of the El Mujahid Detachment, whose members committed horrific crimes against Serbs. He posts photos and videos from Bužim marches that have caused public concern. There has been an increase in attacks on Serb returnees, their property, and religious sites in the Federation of BiH. A convoy displaying wartime symbols and chanting slogans associated with ritual killings of Serbs by beheading passed through Serb returnee villages in the municipality of Bosanski Petrovac on September 14, during marking the 30th anniversary of the "liberation" of the Krajina municipality. A few days earlier, on September 11, 60 tombstones were destroyed at the Orthodox cemetery in the village of Pečuj, two kilometers from the Zenica downtown. The perpetrators of the desecration remain unidentified. Some of the broken crosses are over 150 years old, indicating the centuries-long presence of Serbs in the area.