Bosnia Expels former Al-Qaida Fighter
Sarajevo | 31 March 2009 | Srecko Latal
Ali Hamad 160Bosnia and Herrzegovina has deported a former Islamic fighter and Al-Qaida officer, 38-year old Ali Hamad, to his home-country of Bahrain, Bosnian immigration officials told media on Tuesday.
Ali Hamad was deported on Monday aboard a flight from Sarajevo, Dragan Mektic, director of Bosnia’s Agency for Foreigners told media.
Bosnia Expels former Al-Qaida Fighter
Sarajevo | 31 March 2009 | Srecko Latal
Ali Hamad 160Bosnia and Herrzegovina has deported a former Islamic fighter and Al-Qaida officer, 38-year old Ali Hamad, to his home-country of Bahrain, Bosnian immigration officials told media on Tuesday.
Ali Hamad was deported on Monday aboard a flight from Sarajevo, Dragan Mektic, director of Bosnia’s Agency for Foreigners told media.
He added that two other Islamic fighters, Abu Hamza and Omar Frendi, remain in the Sarajevo asylum center awaiting the outcome of their appeal against deportation.
All three men have been deemed to represent “a threat to public order and the national interest of Bosnia and Herzegovina” and were scheduled to be extradited. Abu Hamza and Omar Frendi have appealed against the extradition before Bosnia’s Constitutional Court.
Ali Hamad came to Bosnia during the 1992-1995 war to fight alongside Bosniaks (Bosnian Muslims). He was first a soldier and later a commander of the “Al Mujaheed” brigade, which was made up mostly of foreign Islamic fighters and operated in central Bosnia.
After the end of the war, under strong American pressure, Bosnia expelled most of the Islamic fighters and revoked hundreds of citizenships that had been issued to these men. But several hundred remained in the country after marrying local women and starting families. Bosnia’s Human Rights organizations strongly opposed further expulsions, arguing that European human rights standards do not allow individuals to be separated from their families, even if they do not have Bosnian nationality.
Ali Hamad has spent the bulk of his time in Bosnia in Zenica Prison, after he was sentenced to 12 years for organizing a car-bomb attack in Mostar and several armed robberies in 1997. Since completing his sentence three months ago he has been held in an immigration center, awaiting deportation.
In this period, Ali Hamad has also testified about the role of Islamic fighters during the Bosnian war before the International War Crimes Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia, ICTY, in the case against former Bosnian Army commander Rasim Delic..
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