Halilović was born in Taševo, a hamlet in the Prijepolje municipality in the Zlatibor District geographical region of Sandžak, then Yugoslavia.

When Halilović left the Yugoslav People's Army in September 1991 he was a professional military officer and held the rank of major.

While Halilović, his son and daughter survived, his wife Mediha and her brother Edin Rondić died.

The assassin was a member of the State Security Service or SDB-s secret group for liquidation and their commander was Nedžad Ugljen, also the director of SDB.

Halilović's defence showed that he had no effective control and no commanding role over the perpetrators, but was a notional inspector without proper authority.

It was alleged that Rasim Delić, along with Fikret Muslimović, and Bakir Alispahić ordered Sefer's failed assassination which was attempted by two members of the secret state security group known as "Ševe", and their commander Nedžad Ugljen, also the director of the state security service or SDB.

While Sefer was survived bomb attack targeting his flat, his wife Mediha and her brother Edin Rondić were murdered.

It has been alleged that the secret service agents bribed numerous witnesses for false account of what actually took place and that Halilović is simply a scapegoat.

In 2005 Halilović's son, Semir, published a book Državna Tajna which described some of the events which shaped wartime Bosnia.

[6] In April 2006 Semir Halilović was accosted and threatened with death by one of the people whom the book cast in a bad light, Ramiz Delalić (now deceased), who was also a prosecution witness during his father's trial.

On 1 October 2006, Sefer Halilović was elected to a four-year term in the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina.