A federal grand jury in the District of Colombia has indicted a Serbian national on charges of attempted murder and other violations in connection with his alleged attack on the U.S. Embassy in Bosnia last year, the U.S. Department of Justice said.
The announcement was posted on the U.S. Department of Justice website on Tuesday, one day after the Bosnian prosecutors pressed charges against Mevlid Jasarevic, 23, and two of his Bosnian Muslim accomplices over what they called a terrorist attack on the U.S. Embassy in Sarajevo in October, 2011.
“The United States has closely cooperated with Bosnia-Herzegovina authorities in their investigation of the U.S. Embassy attack and strongly supports their decision to charge and prosecute those allegedly involved,” the statement said.
Jasarevic, who is currently being held in a Sarajevo prison, could face at least 20 years in jail if convicted.
On October 28 last year, Jasarevic spent over 30 minutes firing on the U.S. embassy in downtown Sarajevo from a Kalashnikov assault rifle, striking the building with 105 bullets.
A security guard was seriously wounded in the attack, before Jasarevic was wounded by a police sniper in a shoot-out in front of the embassy and arrested.
According to Bosnian authorities, Jasarevic and his accomplices formed a terrorist group in the northeastern village of Gornja Maoca, home to adherents of the ultraconservative Wahhabi branch of Islam, with the goal “to improve the status of their community through violence and terrorist activities against state institutions and foreign diplomatic missions.”
The attack raised questions over the threat from radical Islam in the Balkans, where Muslims constitute 40% of the Bosnian population.
