Bosnian in Vt. accused of lying about war crimes

BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP) ? A man living in Vermont's largest city has been charged with lying to immigration authorities by denying involvement in war crimes during the conflict in Bosnia two decades ago, federal officials said Friday.

Edin Sakoc, 54, a Bosnian-born man living in Burlington, was involved in war crimes against a civilian Bosnian Serb family in 1992, an indictment said. It says he raped a Serb woman and aided in the killing of the two elderly people she was caring for and the burning of the house they were staying in.

An initial appearance in federal court was set for Friday afternoon in Burlington. Neither the court nor the public defender's office had a lawyer listed for him.

Authorities said Sakoc lied when he applied for refugee status and later for permanent residency and then citizenship in the United States by denying any past crimes of persecution.

Sakoc is a Bosnian Muslim and his alleged victims were Orthodox Christian Bosnian Serbs.

The Bosnian Serb family had moved from a home in the southern Bosnian municipality of Capljina to the home of a Bosnian Croat family nearby, the indictment said. Most Bosnian Serbs in the village had fled to safer areas, but a woman remained to care for two people who were too old to travel far, it said.

On or around July 9, 1992, Sakoc and an unnamed co-conspirator went to the home where the victims were staying, took the woman from the home, raped her and took her to the Dretelj prison camp, the indictment said.

Later that night or early the next day, Sakoc and the co-conspirator returned to the home, the indictment said. With help from Sakoc, the co-conspirator fatally shot the two elderly people, burned the home down and separately burned the victims' bodies.

The two-count indictment did not include charges directly tied to those alleged war crimes, but charged that Sakoc had lied three times to immigration authorities when asked if he had participated in crimes of persecution and moral turpitude: once when he applied for refugee status in the U.S. in 2001, again when he applied for permanent legal residency in 2004, and again when he applied for citizenship in 2007.

The indictment was based on a probe by Homeland Security Investigations, a division of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Those investigators were aided by the federal Human Rights Violators and War Crimes Center and the FBI.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/bosnian-vt-accused-lying-war-crimes-160608743.html

Olympic Games Dana Vollmer Ryan Dempster Phelps NBC Olympics Live Olympic medal count Medal Count 2012