Federal authorities on Thursday arrested a Parma Heights man and accused him of lying to get into the United States, a move to hide a war crimes conviction stemming from his time in the Yugoslavian army in the 1990s, officials said.
Jugoslav Vidic, 54, served in the Yugoslavian People’s Army after Croatia declared its independence. As part of the special operations branch of the military, called the Red Berets, he killed a former co-worker at a meat processing plant in Croatia, according to court records.
Vidic targeted Stjepan Komes because Komes once shook hands with former Croatian President Franjo Tudjman as part of a press event. Tudjman supported Croatian independence, while Vidic, an ethnic Serb, fought to keep Croatia part of Yugoslavia.
Vidic returned to the meat-processing plant in September 1991 as a Red Beret about a year later as part of a military operation. He walked Komes out of the plant at gunpoint. Komes’ body was later found in a mass grave.
Vidic was convicted in Croatia of war crimes over the killing and sentenced to 20 years in prison. He fled to the United States in 1999 under refugee status and lied on his green-card applications, according to federal prosecutors. Vidic became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 2005.
He’s charged in U.S. District Court in Cleveland with lying on his green-card application and lying to federal investigators. The charges carry a maximum of 15 years in prison.
Vidic pleaded not guilty during his arraignment on Thursday in front of U.S. District Magistrate Judge Jonathan Greenberg. Vidic mostly answered yes or no to Greenberg’s questions, with the use of an interpreter.
When asked how far he went in school, Vidic said he attended only two years of high school and was “born slow.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jerome Teresinski said during the hearing that prosecutors will argue to keep Vidic in federal custody while the case is pending. Greenberg set a hearing for Feb. 2.
“He’s a war criminal and lied about that to the FBI, and we believe if he’s out on bond, he’ll flee,” Teresinski said. “It’s not just this case, but he’s facing certain incarceration in Croatia.”
Defense attorney Daniel Misiewicz also asked for a separate hearing on whether his client should remain detained, pointing out that Vidic has lived in the area for more than 20 years.
Cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer reached out to Misiewicz following the hearing.
Croatia declared independence from Yugoslavia in 1991. Ethnic Croats, mostly Roman Catholics, wanted to break away from Yugoslavia, which was comprised of ethnic Serbs who were mostly Orthodox Christian. The war between the two lasted until 1995. More than 20,000 people died, and some 300,000 people were displaced.
Tudjman was elected president of Croatia, then a republic of Yugoslavia, in 1990. About two months after Croatia declared its independence and organized its own military, Tudjman visited the city of Petrinja, met with residents on the street and toured the Gavrilovic meat-processing factory where Vidic and Komes worked.
Television news cameras showed Komes shaking Tudjman’s hand.
Vidic served in the Yugoslavian army in 1988 and 1989. He joined the ethnic Serb military that later became part of the Serbian Army of Krajina after war broke out.
Vidic was part of the Serbian army’s siege on Sept. 16, 1991, in Petrinja. The day the Serbian army took control of the city, Vidic killed Komes, according to court records.
During his years in the army, he served in units stationed in Petrinja and received specialized military training. Photos showed Vidic wearing a red beret and carrying a rifle. He worked in a specialized unit called the 39th Reconnaissance-Sabotage Squad, and he rose to the rank of lieutenant.
Vidic remained with occupying forces until August 1995, when a largescale counter-attack drove the Serbian military out of Croatia. Ethnic Serbs fled Croatia after the loss.
Vidic in 1994 was charged with committing a war crime for Komes’ death in a Croatian court in Sisak. He was convicted in absentia of a charge of committing a war crime against the civilian population. In 1999, the Croatian Supreme Court upheld his conviction.
Vidic fled the country and in 1999 applied for refugee status to live in the United States. He lied to a U.S. immigration officer stationed in Romania, saying that his only military experience was in 1988 and 1989, before the war, according to prosecutors.
He landed in the United States in 1999 and again lied on his application to become a permanent citizen, the charges allege. Vidic lied about his military history and that he never “committed any crime of moral turpitude” or was ever charged with breaking any law. He also said he never engaged in sabotage, political assassinations, genocide or participated in a politically motivated killing.
Federal prosecutors say he lied again during an interview in 2005 in a successful attempt to become a permanent citizen. In 2017, U.S. Homeland Security Investigations agents interviewed Vidic at his then-North Royalton home. He again lied about his military service, according to court records.
After Vidic arrived in the United States, he worked at a Dave’s Supermarket and was eventually transferred to the store in Cleveland’s Lee-Harvard Shopping Center. He worked as the store’s meat department manager. Vidic was accused of sexually harassing four women employees, including groping one woman and exposing himself to another, according to court records.
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission sued Dave’s over the accusations in 2009. The company paid $300,000 to settle the lawsuit in 2011 and submitted to a consent decree in which a federal judge oversaw Dave’s to ensure mandatory sexual harassment training for all employees.
Vidic later opened Jugo’s Inc. in Parma, a small business that made and sold Balkan-style sausage. In 2019, the Ohio Department of Agriculture found that the company sold sausage that was produced without a state meat inspection, and a recall was issued.
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