The Court fined a man €500 for attacking two LGBTI girls and threatening two other girls with a knife for holding hands in public, Sarajevo Cantonal Court said on Wednesday.

The Court concluded that the man and his friend stepped out of their car in front of the Sarajevo City Centre (SCC) mall, down-town Sarajevo, where the two girls stood, hitting one of them and throwing her to the ground. Then the two men started running after the second girl who managed to escape, the Court said.

Two days before this attack, the Court concluded that he threatened two other girls for “not looking straight,” saying they are not allowed to hold hands and threatened that he would attack them with a knife.

After that, the Court noted, the man threatened he would attack the Sarajevo Pride because it goes against his religious beliefs.

The Court added that these attacks were probably the result of announcements of the first LGBTI Pride Parade in Bosnia that took place on April 1, 2019.