Bosnia Expected to Release Abu Hamza Soon

Nedim Kulenovic, a lawyer from the NGO Vasa Prava, who follows Abu Hamza's case, told BIRN that he could soon be freed.

Parliament is currently "approving a reform on the law on foreigners which will modify the legislation according to European standards", he said, adding that, "under the new legislation, a foreign citizen will not be deprived of his personal liberty and put under custody for more than 18 months.

"If the reform is adopted... Abu Hamza could be released already before the end of this year," he added.

Last Wednesday, the new law on foreigners passed a second reading in parliament's House of Representatives.

The act will be discussed by the other chamber, the House of Peoples, next week, parliament's PR office told BIRN. "It could likely enter into force already by the end of November," the office said.

Abu Hamza has spent seven years in the migrant detention center of Lukavica, in the western suburbs of Sarajevo.

Originally from Syria, he came to Yugoslavia in the Eighties. During the war in Bosnia, he fought as a Muslim volunteer in the El Mudzahid brigade.

After the end of the conflict, he became a Bosnian citizen. However, in October 2008, he was arrested on suspicion of representing a threat to national security.

The Bosnian authorities deprived him of citizenship and subsequently planned to extradite him to Syria.

The extradition process failed due to fears that he could be ill treated in his country of origin, however.

The European Court for Human Rights also stated that the Bosnian authorities had violated his right to freedom and obliged them to pay him a compensation of 3,000 euro. They did not order his release.