Who is Edin Sakoč, who faces losing US citizenship and deportation to Bosnia

A US citizen of Bosnian origin, suspected of war crimes and lying to US immigration authorities regarding his role in the aggression against Bosnia, was convicted in Vermont on Friday, reports the news agency Patria.

This concerns Edin Sakoč (56), who was arrested on July 27, 2013, in the city of Burlington, where he lived.

If his appeal is rejected, Sakoč will have his US citizenship revoked and will be deported to Bosnia, said Assistant US Attorney Eugenia Cowlws.

Sakoč could also face 10 years in prison. 

The US federal indictment accuses Sakoč of providing false information about his participation in wartime events in Bosnia when regulating his immigration status, as there are indications that he is responsible for war crimes committed against Serb civilians in July 1992.

Sakoč denied the charges and claimed innocence.

The news of his arrest quickly spread among Bosnian citizens, of whom there were over 2,000 in Vermont, with the largest number living in Burlington.

Sakoč's arrest was also a lead story in the Sunday edition of Burlington's Burlington Free Press. He was arrested by special forces in his apartment on Riverside Ave, where he lived with his wife and daughter. The US federal indictment accuses him of providing false information about his participation in wartime events in Bosnia when regulating his immigrant residency status.

Edin Sakoč has lived in Vermont since 2001. He obtained permanent residency in March 2004. He initially resided in the nearby town of Waterbury, and then moved to Burlington, which is Vermont's largest city. He acquired US citizenship in June 2007.

What he is accused of

It is presumed that the process against Sakoč was initiated based on a Serbian indictment, which attributes to him the alleged rape of a Serb woman on July 9, 1992, who was caring for two elderly people, her mother and aunt, and then, with the help of another unidentified person, imprisoned her in the notorious HVO camp Dretelj, where, according to some reports, he worked as a guard.

That same night or the following morning, along with an unidentified accomplice, Sakoč returned to the house where the two elderly Serb women lived, killed them, and burned them along with the house.