Bosnian war criminal sentenced in Minnesota for lying to obtain green card

MINNEAPOLIS — A suburban Twin Cities man, who was convicted in Bosnia for war crimes during the 1990s conflict, was sentenced in federal court Thursday for lying on U.S. immigration forms.

This sentence resulted from an investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), with the assistance of the FBI.

Zdenko Jakiša, 47, a resident of Forrest Lake, Minnesota, was sentenced to time served for failing to disclose, during his immigration to the United States, multiple crimes committed in Bosnia-Herzegovina before and during the 1990s Bosnian Conflict.

Jakiša also stipulated to an order of judicial removal from the United States, in which he agreed that he is not lawfully admissible in the United States.

According to the plea agreement, Jakiša is a Bosnian citizen and between July 1990 and October 1997, he was convicted of various crimes and charged with others in Bosnia, including a conviction for shooting and killing his neighbor through her bedroom window in September 1993.  While some of these charges remained pending in Bosnia, Jakiša fled to the United States where, he now admits, he lied about his criminal history on his U.S. permanent resident applications. Based on him lying on his U.S. immigration forms, he was granted U.S. permanent resident status in the United States, which was revoked upon his latest conviction. 

Jakiša is scheduled to self-surrender to ICE Feb. 16 for his deportation to Bosnia-Herzegovina.