Sarajevo Gunman Vowed to Attack Embassy Before

At Monday's session in the trial of Mevlid Jasarevic, 23, charged with shooting at the building of the US embassy to Bosnia on October 28 last year, Marija Stanisic, of the State Investigative and Protection Agency, SIPA, shared information that she obtained while questioning Jasarevic's wife.

Stanisic told the Court on August 27 that Mirela Demirovic had said during questioning that her husband had told her on the day in October that he would attack the embassy but that she did not take it seriously because he had already said the same thing in September.

Recalling what Demirovic said, Stanisic explained that the gunman had showed his wife the video message he had recorded, then put a Kalashnikov rifle in a bag and two hand bombs in his vest.

Jasarevic also told his wife to store another rifle, the one presumably found later in the woods near the house that the couple that used in Gornja Maoca, a centre of hard-line Islamists in northeast Bosnia.

Another employee of SIPA, Suad Hasanovic, spoke about the police raids in Gornja Maoca, describing the weapons found there, including two automatic rifles, a sniper rifle, documents and a laptop.

Both witnesses shared their knowledge on the community in Gornja Maoca, referring to a question from Judge Branko Peric.

Stanisic and Hasanovic named the leader of the community as Nusret Imamovic, saying that the locals lived an isolated and impoverished life.

Jasarevic said that the two of his alleged helpers, Emrah Fojnica and Munib Ahmetspahic, did not know anything about his intentions and that the US embassy attack was his own act.

He repeated what he said at the previous trial session, that his target were US special police "who were killing Iraqis".

Jasarevic was charged with shooting at the US embassy building for some 50 minutes, firing 105 bullets from a rifle on October 28, 2011 when he wounded a police officer who was guarding the building.

Fojnica and Ahmetspahic, the two alleged helpers, are charged with allegedly hiding the DVD message that Jasarevic had recorded before coming to Sarajevo on the day, and destroyed ammunition and military equipment that had been obtained for terrorist purposes.

The trial started on June 15 at Bosnia's State Court, when the indictment was read out. The defence admits the suspect's action but insists that he was not part of an organized terrorist group.

The prosecution maintains that Jasarevic, Ahmetspahic and Fojnica were all members of an organized terrorist group that was active in Gornja Maoca.

All three have pleaded not guilty to the charges. Jasarevic is also indicted by the US Justice Department for attempted murder alongside nine other counts in connection with the shootings.