Page 42 - Cyber Terrorism and Extremism as Threat to Critical Infrastructure Protection

SECTION I: EXTREMISM, RADICALIZATION AND CYBER THREATS AS AN IMPORTANT
SECURITY FACTORS FOR COUNTERING TERRORISM PROCESSES

of three years for this criminal act). In one case from the Court of BIH, one defendant was
sentenced to a seven year term because he was a part of the Salafi community in BIH during
2013 and 2014. He went to a few cities in BIH for the purpose of propagating and spread-
ing Islamic radicalism in BIH and the region. After that he left BIH and joined the terrorist
organization ISIL in Syria and Iraq. In another case of the Court of BIH, the defendant was
sentenced to a four-year because he was part of ISIL from 17.7.2013. to 11.8.2014. in Syria
and Iraq” (Šikman, 2018, p 129). In the criminal prosecution of foreign fighters, “as mitigat-
ing circumstances, the Court usually mentioned their family circumstances, their admission to
committing the criminal acts, a shorter time spent in Syria, sincere regret for the criminal acts,
voluntary departures from the front, activities undertaken to deter people from going to Syria,
and cooperation with the persecuting bodies. In eight of these cases there was a plea bargain
deal with the defendants” (Šikman, 2018, p 129).

In the past few years some police actions have been carried out in the region. They have had
the codenames “Svjetlost”, “Damask”, and “Ruben”, and have arrested members of the Salafi
movement who were brought together by terrorist activities and organized citizens of BiH to
go to foreign battlefields (Ogrizović, 2018, e-source). The border police also have important
role regarding entering process for all citizen in BiH.

As for soft measures, this is something that Bosnia struggles with; rehabilitation and deradi-
calization are not included in a sufficient amount. “Bosnia and Herzegovina must develop
effective mechanisms for the repression and criminalization of this phenomenon; but must
also understand that these measures alone cannot stop the spread of dangerous ideologies or
discourage individuals from embracing them. It is imperative that BiH society abandon its
voyeuristic attitude toward this phenomenon and work toward developing social responses.
This will require strengthening remaining social correctives – from families, to schools and
academia, to the media, to civil society – and developing a clear and universal system of val-
ues and norms” (Azinović and Jusić, 2015, p 80).

“In this regard, the issue of deradicalization of individuals and their integration into society
is especially important. It means not only deradicalizing these individuals, but other like-
minded people who pose a similar threat, which was best manifested in 2015 when there were
three terrorist attacks in BIH where two soldiers and one police officer were killed... Although
there are extensive recommendations on how to carry out deradicalization programmes in
BIH, it seems that this process has not made much progress. Positive examples can be the call
to closing down the para-jamaats by certain religious leaders, which was not well received
by radicalized groups. Hence this issue seems to be the most important, but also the biggest
challenge for BIH” (Šikman, 2018, p 131).

3.4 Case Study of Kosovo

The Republic of Kosovo, a country only 12 years old, has still not been recognized by some
countries of the world, including five countries of European Union (Cyprus, Spain, Slovakia,
Greece and Romania), large international forces such as China, India and Russia, and also
her neighbour, Serbia. Not getting recognition is not surprising because of the way Kosovo
was founded, declaring independence from Serbia. Kosovo was given help by NATO to gain
independence. NATO’s bombing of Serbia in 1999 was one of the reasons why “One of the
strongest supporters of the US and the West, Kosovo is also one of the poorest countries in
Europe with an unemployment rate around 40 per cent” (Haxhiaj and Nabolli, 2018, p 4).

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