Prosecution in Bosnia and Herzegovina declines investigation into Srebrenica song

The Prosecutor's Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina has decided not to launch a criminal investigation against an individual from Zvornik, identified as D.S., regarding a song played on July 11.

On the anniversary of the Srebrenica genocide, D.S. played a song via a loudspeaker on a raft at Zvornik Lake that included the lyric “may it happen again.” While the Prosecutor's Office acknowledged that the song's content is “undoubtedly extremely offensive, provocative, and socially unacceptable,” they concluded that the act did not meet the legal threshold for a criminal offense.

According to prosecutor Biljana Golijanin, the law requires that an action must actively incite or stir up hatred, discord, or intolerance toward a specific national, ethnic, or religious group. The prosecution determined that simply playing the musical content was not sufficient to prove the elements of a crime under Article 145a of the Criminal Code of BiH. The individual has already been issued a misdemeanor fine under the Law on Public Order and Peace of Republika Srpska.