These outbursts of violence underscore the daily strain faced by many LGBT people in BiH. The motivation for the attack was listed as 'unknown' in the report.īosnian police intervened after radical Muslims and hooligans disrupted the first gay festival in Sarajevo in 2008. The police released all four men after taking their statements. They threatened to detonate a bomb if anyone called the police.
In March, 2016, four young men again stalked into Art Kriterion shouting anti-LGBT profanities. The Sarajevo Open Center (SOC), a prominent LGBT activist group, said the police have investigated one of the 14 people on a 'violent behavior” misdemeanor charge. In February 2014, 14 masked men forced their way into the Art Kriterion Cinema in Sarajevo, a space known for being LGBT-friendly, and attacked two people. Several onlookers sustained head injuries. It would have been the first of its kind in Bosnia-Herzegovina (BiH), but for the dozens of men - a combination of football fans and religious extremists - who swarmed the festival, reportedly shouting 'kill the gays' and 'Allahu akbar.' They threw rocks and dragged people from their cars. In 2008, the LGBT community in Sarajevo planned a four-day cultural festival. But, beating up gay people is apparently one of them. There aren't many causes that unite Salafists and football hooligans.
