A Minnesota man has been charged with immigration fraud for failing to disclose his military service in Bosnia-Herzegovina during the war there in the 1990s or crimes he committed including murder, U.S. authorities said on Wednesday.
Zdenko Jakisa, 45, who was arrested on Wednesday, failed to disclose that he was a member of the armed forces of the Croatian Defense Council during the Bosnian war, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said in a statement.
The statement said records and witnesses from Bosnia indicate that Jakisa committed numerous crimes there that he did not disclose on his refugee or green card applications.
The crimes included murdering an elderly Bosnian Serb woman and kidnapping, robbing and assaulting a Bosnian Muslim man in 1993, the ICE statement said.
An indictment filed in April on the immigration fraud charge said Jakisa failed to disclose in the applications that, “He had been arrested, charged, indicted and imprisoned for breaking or violating the law in Bosnia.”
A federal magistrate on Wednesday ordered Jakisa held temporarily and scheduled a detention hearing for Monday in U.S. District Court in Minnesota.
An attorney for Jakisa could not be reached immediately for comment.
Source: Reuters
