Petar Popović from Derventa was supposed to be on INTERPOL's international wanted list in the summer of 2025, because he is suspected of having gone to fight on the Russian side in Ukraine as a citizen of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH).
However, the International Criminal Police Organization rejected BiH's request to issue a diffuse arrest warrant for a BiH citizen, citing a rule that strictly prohibits any activity in cases that have a political, military, religious or racial background.
A diffuse arrest warrant means that INTERPOL member countries are notified that Popović is a wanted person, with any of the 196 countries being able to arrest him.
On the other hand, even without this warrant, the authorities in BiH can still react and prosecute him because he is suspected of participating in a foreign battlefield, which is a criminal offense under the laws of BiH.
What did INTERPOL give as the reason for the rejection?
In May, the BiH Prosecutor's Office asked the Court of BiH to order the issuance of an arrest warrant for Petar Popović, a 37-year-old from Derventa, northern BiH, who went to Russia and then to the battlefield in Ukraine after a stay in Germany.
According to available information from security agencies, Popović is a mercenary and it is not known whether he has received Russian citizenship, which is common practice for foreign volunteers who join the official Russian army.
The Court of BiH approved the request for issuing an arrest warrant and contacted the INTERPOL Office in Sarajevo, from where the request was sent to the Organization's headquarters in Lyon.
The response from Lyon stated that the INTERPOL General Secretariat could not respond to this request because it had "recently reviewed its previous practice, according to which some cases concerning foreign nationals participating in armed conflict were approved for publication."
It was also stated that "taking into account geopolitical developments and growing risks to the neutrality of the Organization, INTERPOL will no longer publish such requests."
The official response is that an international arrest warrant will not be issued for Popović due to Article 3 of the INTERPOL Statute, namely the part that states that any activity or intervention in matters or cases that have a political, military, religious or racial background is strictly prohibited.
INTERPOL stated that this organization will respond to similar requests in the future in this manner.
The only exceptions will be in cases where the wanted persons are found to have joined a terrorist organization, committed an international crime during an armed conflict, or committed an "ordinary crime."
The response to the BiH authorities also stated that it was possible for the request to be supplemented if any of the above were established for Popović, however, BiH did not have such evidence.
INTERPOL told Radio Free Europe (RFE) that requests related to armed conflicts are considered on a case-by-case basis, "to ensure compliance with INTERPOL rules, including the prohibition on undertaking any intervention or activity of a military nature set out in Article 3 of the Statute."
It was also stated that there have been no official changes to the document that prescribes the rules for issuing warrants related to military activities since 2013.
Who is Petar Popović?
Petar Popović was born on October 1, 1988 in Derventa. It is not known when he left Bosnia and Herzegovina for Germany, nor the circumstances under which he joined Russian forces in Ukraine.
RFE/RL tried to contact Popović via social media, but there was no response.
Popović is one of about 20 BiH citizens suspected of fighting on Russia's side in Ukraine.
Popović's social media accounts do not reveal much, just a few photos from earlier years. The profile description states that Popović studied at the Military Academy in Belgrade, but RFE/RL was unable to verify the accuracy of this information.
The Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine recently confirmed to RFE/RL that investigators have identified 12 citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina who allegedly fought in Ukraine as part of Russian private military companies. The Ukrainian prosecutor's office could not disclose further details due to confidentiality.
Information about foreign nationals, including those from Bosnia and Herzegovina, in the ranks of Russian forces in Ukraine also emerged in October 2025, when the police of Ukraine and Moldova, in cooperation with EUROPOL, discovered more than 650 individuals linked to the Russian paramilitary formations Wagner and Redut and potential war crimes in Ukraine.
Among the 280 foreign citizens, it is reported that there were also those from Bosnia and Herzegovina. The exact number of BiH citizens is not known.
There is also information about several BiH citizens who have joined Ukrainian forces, but details about them are unavailable.
"INTERPOL's response is not a surprise"
The response of the INTERPOL General Secretariat and the reference to the provision of the Statute, which prohibits intervention in cases that have a political, military, religious or racial background, does not come as a surprise to Armin Kržalić, a professor at the Faculty of Criminalistics, Criminology and Security Studies in Sarajevo.
Kržalić recalls that INTERPOL invoked the same provision when, in April 2025, it rejected a request from BiH to issue an international arrest warrant for the then President of Republika Srpska Milorad Dodik and the Speaker of the Entity Assembly Nenad Stevandić, while the Prosecutor's Office was seeking them on suspicion of attacking the constitutional order of BiH.
"In that case, it was clear that they would not issue an arrest warrant, but our institutions persistently 'pushed' it. INTERPOL can issue an arrest warrant, but evidence must be provided that these are criminal acts related to murder, terrorism or something else. Institutions in BiH are unable to learn from their initial mistakes," said Kržalić.
In response to the request from BiH to issue an arrest warrant for Popović, it was stated that the previous practice in which arrest warrants were issued in some cases of foreign nationals participating in armed conflict had been reviewed.
Kržalić also believes that the "time is not ripe" for INTERPOL to issue arrest warrants in such cases, and that Article 3 of the Statute gives it the opportunity to do so.
"There were such examples when it came to going to the battlefield in Syria, because there was a general international position that it was about terrorism. But here, INTERPOL is obviously assessing the conflict, whether it is military, whether it is political. It all depends on what we have in the international airwaves, whether it is about aggression, an armed conflict, a special operation, so it leaves all possibilities open and does not make any qualifications, but strives for neutrality," he says.
When it comes to the challenges in prosecuting BiH citizens who join foreign paramilitary formations and fight in other countries, which is a criminal offense in BiH, he says that it is evident that there are problems there as well.
"The problem is in their detection, and then in monitoring and processing after their return. It is particularly difficult to collect evidence, which cannot be done without international cooperation," he points out, adding that the domestic judiciary has difficulty proving war crimes in a foreign country, murders or terrorism.
"This is not even considered in court proceedings, but is exclusively linked to the criminal act of joining foreign paramilitary formations," he stressed.
The BiH Criminal Code prescribes a minimum prison sentence of three years for joining a foreign military, paramilitary or parapolice formation. Organizing, training, equipping or mobilizing persons with the aim of going to foreign battlefields is punishable by a minimum prison sentence of eight years.
Publicly inviting or inciting to go to foreign battlefields is also punishable by a sentence of three months to three years in prison.
Traveling to foreign battlefields has been a criminal offense in Bosnia and Herzegovina since 2015, when the focus was primarily on the battlefield in Syria and joining terrorist organizations such as the so-called Islamic State or Al-Nusra. Returnees have been prosecuted if their membership in such groups is proven.
So far, no one has been convicted for the war in Ukraine, and there was one case before the Court against Gavrilo Stević, who was finally acquitted because his guilt for the war in Ukraine in 2014 and 2015 was not proven.
Only a few months earlier, an arrest warrant was issued in a similar case against Dario Ristić.
Shortly before the Petar Popović case, INTERPOL, at the request of Bosnia and Herzegovina, issued an arrest warrant for Darija Ristić from Modriča.
Ristić, who lost his leg on the battlefield in Ukraine, voluntarily returned to BiH and was arrested at Sarajevo Airport on September 17, based on an INTERPOL red notice issued for him in March 2025.
He is suspected of having fought on the side of Russia in Ukraine since November 2023, and in the meantime has obtained Russian citizenship. Ristić has been posting information on social media about his participation in the battlefield in Ukraine.
The state court initially ordered him to be detained for one month, after which he was released and placed under house arrest.
RFE/RL has learned that Ristić is negotiating a plea bargain with the BiH Prosecutor's Office. The indictment and plea bargain are expected in January.
Bonus video:
