Man pleads guilty to illegally getting green card by not acknowledging Croatia war crime charge

An Ohio man has pleaded guilty to having obtained a green card by concealing that he had been charged with a war crime in Croatia prior to emigrating to the U.S., according to the Justice Department. 

According to court documents, Jugoslav Vidic, of the Ohio city of Parma Heights, when applying in 2000 to become a lawful permanent resident of the United States, falsely stated that he had never been charged with breaking any law, despite having known he had been charged in Croatia with a war crime against the civilian population.

The 55-year-old Vidic also falsely stated that his only past military service was in the Yugoslav Army from 1988 to 1989 and omitting his service in the Serb Army of Krajina and its predecessors during the civil war in the former Yugoslavia from 1991 to 1995, the department also reports.

Vidic received his green card in 2005.

He was charged with a war crime in Croatia in 1994. A Croatian court found that during an attack by ethnic Serb forces in 1991, Vidic cut off the arm of civilian who died afterward.

Vidic has pleaded guilty to one count of illegally obtaining an alien registration receipt card, at least in part, by providing materially false statements. He is scheduled to be sentenced in May 2024.

A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

The federal government has began the process of removing him from the U.S. but will be required to serve any sentence imposed in the country before being removed.