This was the first terror case held before the State Court. Mirsad Bektasevic, a Swedish citizen originally from Bosnia and Herzegovina, was sentenced to 15 years and four months in jail. Abdulkadir Cesur, a Turkish citizen who was residing in Denmark, was sentenced to 13 years and four months. Bajro Ikanovic, a Bosnian citizen, was sentenced to eight years, while Senad Hasanovic, another Bosnian citizen and the only one who pleaded guilty, was sentenced to two and a half years' imprisonment.
Explaining the verdict, Judge Mirza Jusufovic said the trial proved without doubt that Bektasevic arrived in Bosnia in September and Cesur in October 2005, in agreement with other persons, in order to organise and carry out a terrorist attack in Bosnia or another European country, for the purpose of forcing the government of Bosnia or another country to withdraw troops deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Bektasevic and Cesur procured explosives with the mediation of Ikanovic and Hasanovic, said the judge.
He explained that a minimum 19 kg of explosive mixture was purchased and that Bektasevic used some of it to make a suicide belt which was ready for use when the terror gang was arrested.
When the police raided the house near Sarajevo where Bektasevic and Cesur were living, they found a gun, radios and toys that could have been used as time triggers for the explosive as well as a videotape with instructions on how to make explosive devices and a voiceover about the readiness to make sacrifices in the fight against the unfaithful.
Bektasevic and Cesur assaulted the police during the raid, which taken as an aggravating circumstance.
The panel of judges assessed that if the attack had occurred, it would have had serious repercussions on peace and security in Bosnia, and that it would have endangered everything that had been achieved in recent years in stabilising the country following the 1995 Dayton peace agreement. This too prompted the judges to hand down the long sentences.
The defendants were remanded in custody until the sentences become final.
Bektasevic and Cesur were arrested based on intelligence data the Bosnian Federation police exchanged with Swedish and Danish security services, which had been tailing them due to suspicion that they had ties with Islamic terror networks.