WASHINGTON — Federal officials have arrested and charged a Parma Heights man they say lied about war crimes he committed during the Yugoslav Wars prior to immigrating to the United States.
The Department of Justice claims Jugoslav Vidic, 55, made "multiple false statements" while applying to be a lawful permanent U.S. resident. Specifically, investigators say he was convicted in absentia in 1998 of committing a war crime in Croatia, and that he also killed at least one person because of their ethnicity or political opinion.
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According to the DOJ, Vidic was a member of the Serbian Army of Krajina in the early 1990s, an ethnic nationalist group which carried out several massacres of civilians during the civil war. In September of 1991, Vidic allegedly kidnapped a Croatian Civilian at gunpoint after Vidic had seen the person shaking hands with Croatian President Franjo Tuđman. The victim's body was later found in a mass grave.
Vidic came to the U.S. in 1999 while claiming refugee status and became a lawful permanent resident in 2005. In 2017, federal agents questioned him about his application, but he denied any wrongdoing.
Vidic is charged with one count of possessing a green card that was procured by means of materially false statements and one count of making false statements to a federal agent. If convicted, he could face up to 15 years in prison.
Officials have not indicated if Vidic could possibly face extradition to Croatia in regards to his prior war crimes conviction. More than 140,000 people were killed in the civil war than resulted in the breakup of the former Yugoslavia.