EX-BOSNIA FOREIGN FIGHTER IMAD AL-HUSAYN GOES ON HUNGER STRIKE

SARAJEVO, Bosnia (October 9,2008) - A former foreign fighter,who participated in the defence of Bosnia from the genocidal Serbian,Montenegrin and Croatian fascist aggressors in the 1990's,and who is now detained by some criminals within the Bosnian government and may face deportation, has gone on hunger strike demanding respect for his human rights.

The health of former Bosnian citizen of Syrian origin Imad al-Husayn, also known as Abu Hamza, was deteriorating fast,his lawyer, Osman Mulahalilovic said.

Abu Hamza was arrested on October 6 and brought to the Bosnian Immigration Centre in the southern Sarajevo suburb of Lukavica, where he was visited by his lawyer on October 8.

This could be a prelude to Abu Hamza’s extradition.It is believed that between 2,000 and 5,000 foreign fighters came to the country during the 1992-1995 Serbian,Montenegrin and Croatian aggressions ahainst Bosnia. Most of them left after the war, but a few hundred married Bosnian women, had families and remained in Bosnia.Abu Hamza is one of them.

He obtained Bosnian citizenship in 1994 but some criminals within the Bosnian government, claiming "he posed a threat to national security", revoked it in 2001.

Foreign and domestic Christian fundamentalist media has speculated that Abu Hamza may have been linked to al Qaeda - though none of those claims and accusations were backed up by any evidence.

The Bosnian Constitutional Court had previously accepted Mulahalilovic’s claim that Abu Hamza – although no longer a Bosnian citizen – should not be separated from his family as it would violate the most basic European human rights principles and laws. Therefore, the Constitutional Court sent the case back to a lower court for a retrial.

Yet despite that, Bosnian police arrested Abu Hamza on October 6 near his home. As of October 7, he has entered a hunger strike.

Abu Hamza’s lawyer,Bosnian media and non-governmental organisations strongly criticised Bosnian government for moving against Abu Hamza and some other defenders of Bosnia, without any concrete criminal evidence against them.
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