A 56-year-old ethnic Serb has been sentenced in the United States to three years in prison for possessing a residency permit obtained illegally by concealing his actions during the Yugoslav civil war more than 30 years ago.
Jugoslav Vidic falsely stated that he had never been charged with breaking any law when he applied to become a permanent resident of the United States, the U.S. Justice Department said in a news release on October 16.
He had in fact been charged in Croatia with a war crime against the civilian population before emigrating to the United States as a refugee in 1999.
"I never had any intent to do harm," Vidic told the court through an interpreter when he was sentenced on October 15. "I wanted to come here for the sake of my family."
Defense attorney Daniel Misiewicz said during the hearing that his client built a life as a sausage-maker in Parma Heights, a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio. He was also a devout member of his church and a dedicated father of two, Misiewicz told the court, according to the local news outlet Cleveland.com.
"This is an extremely sad and difficult day," Misiewicz said. "He'll face the ultimate punishment of being deported after he built a life here."
In addition to concealing the war crimes charges, Vidic also made false statements about his past military service, saying he was in the Yugoslav Army from 1988 to 1989 when in fact he fought with the Serbian Army of Krajina and its predecessors during the civil war in the former Yugoslavia from 1991 to 1995.
Vidic pleaded guilty to one count of possessing an alien registration-receipt card -- known as a Green Card -- knowing it had been procured through materially false statements, the Justice Department said. As part of the plea agreement, Vidic agreed to be deported after he serves his three-year sentence in the United States.
Vidic admitted in his plea agreement that he was charged with a war crime in Croatia in 1994 and convicted in absentia in 1998 and admitted that he knew about the charges when he immigrated to the United States.
The Croatian court found that during an attack by ethnic Serbian forces in Petrinja, Croatia, on September 16, 1991, Vidic cut off the arm of civilian Stjepan Komes and let him bleed to death.
"Jugoslav Vidic lied about war crimes charged against him in an attempt to escape his past and live in the United States unlawfully," said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole Argentieri, head of the Justice Department's Criminal Division.
"His sentence demonstrates that human rights violators will not be allowed to hide from their crimes in the United States," Argentieri added.
Katrina Berger, executive associate director of Homeland Security Investigations, said she hoped the sentencing of Vidic "provides some measure of solace to the victims' families with the knowledge that despite the passage of time, the United States will seek justice."