The international arrest warrant against 26-year-old Žavbi was issued by the Italian authorities based on the investigation by the special unit of Italian military police force Carabinieri from Padova, coordinated by the Office of the Prosecutor from Venice. The investigation under the name »Borac« was initiated in 2013 to investigate the actions of the Bosnian imam Bilal Bosnić, who was convicted in Bosnia and Herzegovina for terrorist activity.

As reported by RTV correspondent Mojca Širok on the investigation, Žavbi in Italy allegedly recruited new members on behalf of Bosnić, and then directed them to war zones in Syria.

In Italy no drills, and no attacks are planned
Lieutenant-colonel Elvio Labagnara from the Carabinieri special unit explained that the results of the investigation showed that the suspect had been in possession of weapons, but he added that there was no data that he had organized drills on the Italian territory. "In spite of the thorough and in-depth investigation, no information hint that terrorist attacks are being prepared at our territory," claims the Venice district prosecutor Adelchi d'Ippolito.

Lieutenant-colonel Labagnara described Žavbi as a charismatic figure who had, as somebody who had participated in the conflicts in Syria, the power to attract new members to be sent to the war zones in that country. The suspect had been apprehended on Friday in a joint operation by Italian and Slovenian police, and on Saturday morning he was brought to the investigating judge of the District Court of Ljubljana.

Žavbi already in 2014 denied his membership in IS
The first information about Žavbi's participation on the side of the extremists in Syria mentored by the Bosnian imam Bilal Bosnić surfaced in media in 2014. Žavbi denied fighting for the Islamic State, and claimed that he had gone to Syria as a male nurse in order to help the rebels in their struggle against the cruel regime of the Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.