A 57-year-old man jailed in Pennsylvania mutilated a civilian during the civil wars that ravaged the Balkans in the 90s, authorities say

ALLENWOOD, Pa. — A man serving time in a central Pennsylvania federal prison for lying in his immigration paperwork is a convicted war criminal who may soon find himself back in the Balkans nation where he was accused of mutilating a civilian decades ago, newly filed court records show.

Jugoslav Vidić, 57, who is currently at FCI-Allenwood, is the subject of an extradition request made by the government of Croatia, federal prosecutors told a judge in the Middle District of Pennsylvania. Croatian authorities want him because they say he’s responsible for horrors committed in 1991 in Petrinja, Croatia, during the civil war that saw the dissolution of the former Yugoslavia.

Vidić fled to the United States after the fighting and laid low for years. Then, in January 2023, a federal grand jury seated in Ohio handed up an indictment that accused of him lying in his green card application.

The paperwork asked if he had ever been charged with breaking the law. Vidić said no. Federal authorities said he knew otherwise.

A court in Croatia convicted Vidić in absentia in 1998 for crimes against humanity. During the fighting that ravaged the Balkans from 1991 to 1995, Vidić fought alongside the paramilitary forces of the Serbian Autonomous Oblast of Krajina, which was in open conflict with the Republic of Croatia and opposed Croatian independence from Yugoslavia.

On Sept. 16, 1991, authorities said Vidić entered a mean manufacturing company where he worked before the violence and cut off the arm of a man who shook the hand of Franjo Tudman, the first president of Croatia.

Vidić mutilated the man, Stjepan Komes,  in front of a group of female workers, who he forced to undress.

Vidić wore a camouflage uniform but no facemask. His former coworkers recognized him. Komes died of his wounds.

Prosecutors also said that Vidić routinely beat prisoners and subjected them to “inhumane acts” at an army barracks in Petrinja.

Vidić emigrated to the United States as a refugee in 1999. His request for a green card was approved in 2005 because his application left out his sordid past in Balkans.

A federal judge last year sentenced Vidić  to 36-months for immigration fraud. A hearing on the extradition request has not yet been scheduled.