(MENAFN) Belgian judicial authorities may potentially initiate a probe into purported acts of “sniper tourism” said to have occurred amid the siege of Sarajevo during the 1990s, provided Belgian citizens were implicated.

This possibility was raised by former international magistrate Chris Van den Wyngaert, as a news agency reported on Monday.

Her comments arrive in the wake of last week’s decision by Milanese prosecutors to begin examining assertions that affluent foreign visitors paid considerable sums to shoot at Sarajevo civilians from nearby elevations during the Bosnian War, and that Bosnian Serb forces facilitated “human safaris” for wealthy outsiders in the city.

The Italian inquiry was prompted by a formal complaint submitted by investigative journalist and writer Ezio Gavazzeni, who had conducted research into the alleged episodes.

Multiple Italian nationals were said to have journeyed to the Bosnian capital during the protracted siege to join Serb sniper groups and fire at noncombatants for “entertainment,” according to earlier reporting from Italian media.

A daily newspaper noted that these individuals were not trained soldiers but rather “radical far-right war tourists.”

In an interview with a radio program, Van den Wyngaert — who previously served as a judge at both the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia — explained that she had never encountered any proof of such conduct during her years on the bench.

"I didn't believe it, it was so unbelievable," Van den Wyngaert remarked.

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