Counter-terrorism expert Dzevad Galijasevic today said that Mirsad Bektasevic is part of a Bosnian terrorist network which has 5,000 members and that serious terrorist attacks can be expected in BiH.
“Such attacks can be expected in BiH, since security minister Dragan Mektic and the director of the BiH State Investigation and Protection Agency /SIPA/, Perica Stanic, are bad, while the director of the BiH Intelligence-Security Agency /OBA/, Osman Mehmedagic, is a classic Islamist,” Galijasevic told SRNA, noting that security agencies at the BiH level do not deal with the fight against terrorism at all.
He said that Bektasevic had been arrested in 2005 in Sarajevo and had been convicted by the BiH Court in 2007 for his intent to carry out an act of terrorism together with Bajro Ikanovic and Abdulkadir Cesur.
“Bektasevic and Cesur intended to carry out terrorist attacks in BiH and other European countries since they wanted to force BiH and other countries to withdraw their soldiers from Afghanistan,” Galijasevic said.
He said that police had discovered on that occasion 20 kg of explosives and a suicide belt at Bektasevic’s and Cesur’s homes.
“Bektasevic was sentenced to 15 years and four months in prison, Cesur to 13 years and Ikanovic to eight years in prison. The Appeals Chamber of the BiH Court reduced Bektasevic’s sentence to eight years and four months, Cesur’s sentence to six years and six months and Ikanovic’s sentence to four years,” Galijasevic said.
Bektasevic was arrested yesterday in Greece during an attempt to join the Islamic State.
He is a citizen of Sweden and was earlier sentenced in BiH for attempts to carry out a terrorist act. Bektasevic, also known as Maksimus, was born in 1987 in Novi Pazar. He has lived in Sweden since 1994.
Source: SRNA
