Bosnia Arrests Syria Jihad Suspect

Police in Bosnia on Wednesday arrested a man on terrorism charges for allegedly meeting with Islamic State jihadists in Syria.

The suspect, named as Kenan Krso, was suspected of "several activities linked with terrorism," a spokesman for the public prosecutor's office told reporters.

"The suspect stayed for a brief period in Syria," spokesman Boris Grubesic added.

"He met there members of the (ultra-conservative Islamist) Wahhabi movement, who are fighting within the ranks of the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, and with whom he stayed in contact" after returning to Bosnia, Grubesic said.

The spokesman did not say whether the suspect himself took up arms.

Krso, 39, was already arrested in February while walking in downtown Sarajevo dressed in a T-shirt with the Islamic State insignia.

A month earlier he caused a scene at a Sarajevo mosque, accusing its moderate imam of telling "lies."

Bosnia last year passed a law imposing sentences of up to 20 years in jail for convicted jihadists and their recruiters.

Some 200 Bosnians are believed to have traveled to Middle Eastern battlegrounds, according to the intelligence services.

A radical Muslim cleric, Husein Bosnic, went on trial in January accused of inciting extremists to travel to Syria and Iraq.

Last week, Bosnian prosecutors charged four men with planning to join Islamic State in Syria and with organizing travel to the conflict zone.

Bosnia's Muslims make up 40 percent of the country's 3.8 million inhabitants.

The vast majority practise a moderate form of Islam.