Bosnia Court Jails Middle Eastern Fighters

In a landmark ruling, the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina on Tuesday jailed four citizens for taking in part in, or mobilizing and transporting groups to take part in, the fighting in Syria and Iraq.

In the first verdict of this kind, Husein Erdic was sentenced to three-and-a-half years, Midhat Trako to a year-and-a-half, and Nevad Husidic and Merin Keserovic each to one year in prison.

The jail terms are line with a law adopted in April 2014, which outlawed fighting on, or mobilizing others to fight on, foreign battlefields.

This group was arrested in February and charges were confirmed in April.

Since the adoption of the new law, Bosnian authorities have arrested a number of persons suspected of joining the fighting in Syria and Iraq and 13 more people are on trial.

Prosecutor Dubravko Campara said the prosecution was content with the sentence, given that this was "the first such case in history" in Bosnian courts.

This statement indicated that the prosecution will not appeal against the sentence while it was still not known whether the defence will appeal or not.

The Bosnian judiciary recently established a special prosecution team to deal with these cases, given that some 150 Bosnian citizens are believed to have been - or still are - in Syria and Iraq as a part of different militant groups there.