No Deportation for Accused Croatian War Criminal

By Sarah Benczik
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

TORONTO, Canada - Canada's Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB) today refused to revoke the refugee status of Josip Budimcic.  The Canadian government had brought the case before the IRB after it discovered Budimcic lied to Canadian immigration authorities about his service in the Yugoslav military when he was granted refugee status in 1995.  The IRB found no evidence Budimcic was involved in the commission of any crimes, and that even if Budimcic was at the scene, the situation was beyond his control to prevent what happened.

Budimcic has been convicted in absentia by a Croatian court for participation in the abuse and torture of captured Croatian soldiers. He was also accused being present when 12 members of the Croatian military unit were captured in a forest between Sarvas and Tenja and two of them were executed.  Four former members of the Croatian army who claimed to have been subjected to mistreatment under Budimcic testified that he had taken part in the execution and torture of the POWs captured during the war in 1991.

The IRB today called the witnesses and the Croatian trial deficient and unreliable.  "He was there for only a few minutes and the situation was beyond his control," the board ruled. "Therefore, there were no serious reasons to consider that Mr. Budimcic committed a war crime, a crime against humanity or a serious non-political crime." 

Budimcic applied for refugee status in 1995 in Canada on the basis of his "mixed marriage" to with his Croatian wife.   The IRB today found the mixed Serbian-Croatian marriage at that time in the history of the former Yugoslavia was enough evidence to make him a refugee.

For more information, please see:

Canada.com - Croatian man accused of war crimes allowed to stay in Canada - 25 November 2008

CTV.ca - War crimes 'beyond control' of accused: panel - 25 November 2008

National Post - Crown loses case to deport alleged Croatian war criminal - 25 November 2008