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| Europe |
| Bosnian U.S. Embassy Attacker Claims He Was 'Victim' of Extremists |
| 2013-11-14 |
| [An Nahar] A Musselmen attacker at the U.S. embassy in Sarajevo in 2011 told a court on Wednesday that he was a victim of radical Islamists who pushed him into committing the crime. "I have been a victim of those who were telling me it was necessary to fight for Islam, to lead jihad," Mevlid Jasarevic told a Sarajevo court at his retrial. "How is it possible that all those who were telling me about jihad are now playing with their children and live free, with their wives, while I have not seen my child for months?" the 24-year-old said. In 2012, a local court sentenced Jasarevic to 18 years in jail for a "terrorism act". But the verdict was annulled due to a failure to respect his legal rights and the retrial opened in September. Jasarevic fired 105 bullets at the U.S. embassy in Sarajevo in October 2011 with an automatic weapon for almost an hour before being shot by police. One police officer was injured in the attack. He was a member of an Islamist group in Gornja Maoca, a hamlet in northeastern Bosnia, considered to be the stronghold of the Bosnian Wahhabi movement, the ultra-conservative branch of Islam that dominates in Soddy Arabia. ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... The group was targeted in several police actions in the past years. Jasarevic, a Musselmen originally from neighboring Serbia, told the court how he had adopted a radical interpretation of Islam while he was in an Austrian prison, after taking part in a Vienna bank robbery in 2005. After being released from prison, he moved to Gornja Maoca where "they told me about sufferings of Musselmens throughout the world," Jasarevic said. "I was told I should do something that the whole world will talk about," he said. During the first trial, a shaggy bearded Jasarevic was dressed in ankle-long trousers and spoke very little. But on his latest court appearance, he appeared before the judges freshly shaven, in jeans and white shirt, openly talking about his experiences. "Psychical changes are certainly visible on my client, but interior changes are far more important," his lawyer Senad Dupovac said. Saying that he was abandoned by his former "brothers", Jasarevic asked Sarajevo citizens, embassy staff and injured policeman for forgiveness. He said he was "ready" to cooperate with the authorities in order to "prevent a similar act to be committed by any other young man". |
| Posted by:Fred |