In its current report named “Country reports on terrorism 2017 in Europe”, the U.S. State Department has marked Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) as a country with potential sources of terrorism.

“Extremist ideology and regional nationalist extremist groups remained potential sources of terrorism in BiH, and little progress was made on rehabilitation and de-radicalization”, stressed the State Department’s report.

It also warned that legislative loopholes and lenient sentencing remained major challenges. Some operational domestic coordination exists, but interpersonal and interagency infighting undermined effective cooperation.

“BiH did not pass any major counterterrorism legislation at the national level in 2017. The sub-state entity Republika Srpska adopted a new criminal code that aligns terrorism offenses with international standards and criminalizes membership in foreign paramilitary and para-police forces. At the state level, BiH also has laws prohibiting membership in para-military and para-police organizations, but sentencing remained a major challenge. Foreign terrorist fighters frequently received sentences below the minimum prescribed by the BiH criminal code, a result of judges taking mitigating circumstances into account. If sentenced to one year or less of incarceration, a convicted terrorist may opt to pay a fine rather than serve time in custody.

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