Rich tourists paid ‘£70k to shoot innocent people in sick human safari trips

RICH tourists paid for weekend blood sport trips where they could shoot innocent civilians – with a premium on kids – according to horrifying new allegations.

Italian authorities are investigating claims that Bosnian Serb forces hosted twisted human safaris in Sarajevo in the ’90s, where moneyed sickos would come to pick off locals with sniper rifles “for fun”.

Unnamed foreigners from Italy, the US, Russia and elsewhere stand accused paying for the murder games during the four-year siege of Sarajevo, during the Bosnian War.

More than 10,000 people were killed there between 1992 and 1996 by shelling and sniper fire, in the longest siege of a capital city in the history of modern warfare.

Visitors – said to be depraved gun enthusiasts from far-right circles – allegedly paid troops between £70,000 and £88,000 for “weekend sniper” trips, according to The Repubblica newspaper.

They would fly from Trieste in Italy to Belgrade on the Serbian airline Aviogenex, before travelling on to the hills around Sarajevo.

From their positions, they would then take aim at passersby in the streets below.

It cost more if they wanted to gun down children, El Pais reported.

Meša Selimović Boulevard, the main road running into the city, was nicknamed “Sniper Alley” because traversing it was such a risk.

Residents lived in perpetual fear of being randomly shot during those years, with most of the slaughter perpetrated by the Bosnian Serb soldiers themselves.

Allegations first came to light in the 2022 documentary “Sarajevo Safari”, by Slovenian filmmaker Miran Zupanic.

In the movie, he gathered testimonies which built a picture of wealthy tourists visiting the city for blood sport.

A legal complaint was then submitted  by Milan-based writer and journalist Ezio Gavazzeni with the support of former magistrate Guido Salvini and Benjamina Karic, mayor of Sarajevo from 2021 to 2024 – triggering the official investigation.

It’s alleged the tourist paid money to troops from Radovan Karadžić’s army – the former Bosnian Serb leader.

Karadžić, 80, was sentenced to 40 years in prison in 2016 for genocide and other crimes against humanity.

The Bosnian Attorney General’s Office apparently shelved a previous investigation into the “sniper tourism” because it was too difficult in a country still scarred by war, Gavazzeni told la Repubblica.

He said: “We are talking about wealthy people, with reputations – businessmen – who during the siege of Sarajevo paid to kill unarmed civilians.

“They left Trieste for a manhunt and then returned to their respectable daily lives.”

Lead prosecutor Alessandro Gobbi is understood to have a list of several people who can provide testimony and may be called to give evidence.

Gavazzeni said that there could be up to 100 tourists who took part in the weekend sniper tours.

“I hope they can locate at least one or two, maybe 10,” he said.

The case mentions a Milanese businessman who owns a private cosmetic surgery clinic, as well as citizens from Turin and Trieste, El Pais reported.