Extremists who return after leaving our country to fight in Iraq and Syria come back with a document certifying that they went to school there.

This document is then used to avoid serving prison time in Serbia, a penalty introduced by the new legislation outlawing participation in wars abroad.

This is what chairman of the Serbian National Assembly's Committee on Control of Security Services Igor Becic told the Belgrade-based daily Politika.

Becic also noted that 11 jihadis have recently returned to Serbia from Syria and Iraq.

"We have information and operative data about where they have been. They went under the guise of attending school and they have documents to prove it. We know they were in the battlefields, but that is very difficult to prove in a court proceeding," Becic said.

He noted that persons who take part in wars abroad, if found guilty, face prison sentences ranging from six months to five years, while those participating in a group could spend from one to eight years in jail. Their recruiters can be sentenced to prison terms from two to ten years.

"The departure of fighters to foreign battlefields was recorded as early as in 2013. It has been determined that this year several persons left from our country," Becic said.

Those from Kosovo mostly take part in foreign wars for "material" reasons, while those from the southwestern Sandzak area, and from Bosnia-Herzegovina, mostly do so due to "ideology," according to the newspaper.

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