The
United States Department of State
The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other na ...
opened the United States Embassy in Sarajevo,
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh, / , ), abbreviated BiH () or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of south and southeast Europe, located in the Balkans. Bosnia and ...
, on July 4, 1994.
[
]
Bosnia and Herzegovina had formerly been a part of
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label= Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavij ...
; the United States recognized the independence of Bosnia and Herzegovina on April 7, 1992.
2001 arrests
In the month following
al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda (; , ) is an Islamic extremist organization composed of Salafist jihadists. Its members are mostly composed of Arabs, but also include other peoples. Al-Qaeda has mounted attacks on civilian and military targets in various countr ...
's
terrorist attacks on major American cities of
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
and
Washington, D.C. on
September 11, 2001
The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commerc ...
, American intelligence analysts became concerned that Arab immigrants in Bosnia and Herzegovina planned to attack the U.S. Embassy in Sarajevo.
[
][
]
In early October 2001, under pressure from the United States,
six men of Algerian descent were arrested by the police of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
[
][
][
][
][
]
Bosna and Herzegovina officials said American officials had assured them that they had evidence, including wiretaps, proving that the six men were in contact with an al-Qaeda leader in Afghanistan
Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is borde ...
, but American officials did not provide that evidence.
From October 2001 to January 2002, the six men went through the Bosnian equivalent of habeas corpus
''Habeas corpus'' (; from Medieval Latin, ) is a recourse in law through which a person can report an unlawful detention or imprisonment to a court and request that the court order the custodian of the person, usually a prison official, ...
. In January 2002, the case made its way to the Bosnian Supreme Court.
The six men continued to face allegations that they had participated in a plot to bomb the embassy at their 2004 Combatant Status Review Tribunal
The Combatant Status Review Tribunals (CSRT) were a set of tribunals for confirming whether detainees held by the United States at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp had been correctly designated as "enemy combatants". The CSRTs were estab ...
s, and at their annual Administrative Review Board
The Administrative Review Board is a United States military body that conducts an annual review of the detainees held by the United States in Camp Delta in the United States Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
The purpose of the Board is to re ...
hearings in 2005, 2006 and 2007.[
The men testified that their interrogators had never asked them about the plot, which led them to believe they recognized that there was no plot.
In 2008, after the Guantanamo captives had their access to habeas corpus in the US justice system restored, the ]United States Department of Justice
The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a federal executive department of the United States government tasked with the enforcement of federal law and administration of justice in the United Stat ...
acknowledged that there had never been any evidence of a bomb plot.[
]
2011 attack
On 28 October 2011, a Wahhabi Islamist fired on the embassy wounding a policeman. He was eventually neutralized by a Ministry of Interior
An interior ministry (sometimes called a ministry of internal affairs or ministry of home affairs) is a government department that is responsible for internal affairs.
Lists of current ministries of internal affairs
Named "ministry"
* Ministry ...
sniper. He was later sentenced to 18 years in prison.
References
External links
Official website
{{Diplomatic missions in Bosnia and Herzegovina
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...
Buildings and structures in Sarajevo
Sarajevo
Sarajevo ( ; cyrl, Сарајево, ; ''see names in other languages'') is the capital and largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a population of 275,524 in its administrative limits. The Sarajevo metropolitan area including Sarajevo ...
Bosnia and Herzegovina–United States relations
Office buildings in Bosnia and Herzegovina