Everett man, suspect in war crimes, to face trial in Bosnia

SEATTLE — Edin Dzeko told a federal judge before a packed courtroom of supporters that he’s eager to go back to Bosnia and clear his name.

The 39-year-old Everett man appeared Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Seattle as part of the extradition process for alleged war crimes in his native country. The killings occurred during the civil war that tore apart the former Yugoslavia in the early 1990s. The Bosnia-Herzegovina government sought Dzeko’s arrest earlier this year in connection with killings of Croat civilians and soldiers.

In the courtroom, defense attorney David Gehrke read aloud a letter from his client.

“I will go to Bosnia,” Dzeko wrote. “I will get to have my time in court there. I will return. I know that.”

Dzeko came to the United States in 2001 and is now a U.S. citizen. Until his arrest, he worked as a lead groundskeeper for a contractor at local U.S. Navy facilities.

The killings detailed in court documents occurred in 1993, when Dzeko was 21. If convicted, he faces a minimum of 10 years in prison.

Monday’s short proceeding had nothing to do with Dzeko’s guilt or innocence. It concerned whether he had any grounds to oppose extradition. Dzeko asked to waive that right and U.S. Magistrate Judge James P. Donohue accepted.

That could send Dzeko back to Bosnia within a month, Gehrke said. The defense decided not to fight extradition, Gehrke said. Among the reasons were a lack of grounds to challenge the international extradition treaty, the status of war crimes as an extraditable offense or the probable cause for Bosnian authorities to investigate, the lawyer said.

Gehrke also conceded his client is the same Edin Dzeko that the Bosnian government is seeking. Earlier, he said the Bosnian authorities may have focused on the wrong person.

Though this wasn’t a trial, Gehrke also offered this opinion: “I believe in his innocence. I believe in him.”

A trial, if Bosnian authorities choose to pursue one, could start in six to nine months, Gehrke said. If Dzeko is convicted, time spent in federal detention in the United States would not count toward any sentence handed down by Bosnian courts.

A Beaverton, Ore., woman named Rasema Handanovic is a co-defendant. In October, a federal judge rejected her attempt to fight extradition. That puts her case in the hands of the U.S. Secretary of State, barring a successful appeal.

More than 30 of Dzeko’s friends and family members on Monday packed the federal courtroom in downtown Seattle. Before the judge entered, Dzeko exchanged smiles and thumbs-up with people in the crowd.

One supporter was Jasmin Grebovic, 44, who lives in Everett and has known Dzeko since the two men were youngsters growing up in southern Bosnia.

“Absolutely no doubt, no doubt he’ll prove his innocence,” Grebovic said.

The friend described the accused as a hard-working man and a father of two who loves his family. He’s know for his passion for professional sports, including basketball, American football and, most of all, soccer.

People who know Dzeko joke about him sharing a name with a fellow Bosnian who plays professional soccer for England’s Manchester City Premier League club.

The Bosnians in the courtroom came from Everett, Marysville, Burien and elsewhere in the Puget Sound area, Grebovic said. Most took time away from jobs to attend.

Dzeko has been in federal custody since April, when U.S. marshals arrived at his home in Everett’s Pinehurst neighborhood.

The extradition request alleges Dzeko was a member of an execution squad that killed Croat civilians and soldiers who had been captured and disarmed by Bosnian forces. That includes an attack on the village of Trusina. Court papers identify Dzeko as a leader of the Bosnian Army’s Zulfikar Special Purposes Detachment.

The events were part of the 1992-1995 war in Bosnia-Herzegovina that killed at least 100,000 people. Conflicts during that time pitted Eastern Orthodox Christian Serbs, Roman Catholic Croats and predominantly Muslim Bosnians against one another.

The conflict in Trusina, however, involved attacks by the Bosnia and Herzegovina army against Croat civilians and militia members. At other points in the war, Bosnian Muslims and Croats fought together against Serb forces.