Bosnia and Herzegovina's authorities have accepted the request of the US government to take over and prosecute captured Bosnian nationals who had fought for the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, Bosnia's Security Minister, Dragan Mektic, said on Thursday.
This means that two former Islamic State fighters, who are currently held in custody in Syria, are likely to be transferred back to Bosnia soon, Mektic said, without disclosing their identities.
Earlier this month, in a meeting of officials of countries involved in the US-led coalition combating the Islamic State in Washington, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo asked allied countries to take back captured fighters who are their nationals, in order to put them on trial in their own home countries.
Bosnia's Foreign Minister, Igor Crnadak, agreed with the plan at the meeting.
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In 2014, Bosnia and Herzegovina was among the first countries in Europe to amend its Criminal Code, banning the departures to foreign battlezones and introducing sanctions for those who breach these law provisions as well as those who help or promote the participation in paramilitary forces in other countries.
Speaking at a ministerial conference last year, Mektic said some 500 Bosnian nationals participated in battles in foreign war zones, which includes the persons who originate from Bosnia but who did not go there directly from Bosnia.
Some 50 died there, 60 returned and are being processed by Bosnian authorities, the minister said in November 2018, addressing the meeting that discussed this issue.
