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Federal judge orders alleged war criminal found in Utica to be held

By JOLEEN FERRIS

Story Created: Dec 6, 2012 at 2:52 PM EDT

Story Updated: Dec 6, 2012 at 2:52 PM EDT

SYRACUSE, N.Y. (WKTV) - It's back to a Cayuga County jail cell for an alleged Bosnian war criminal who was recently arrested in the City of Utica.

A federal judge in Syracuse ordered Sulejman Mujagic held following a detention hearing there at 10:30 Thursday morning. Utica Police and federal agents took a sleeping Mujagic into custody following a pre-dawn raid at the accused war criminal's east Utica house last week.

Mujagic is accused of shooting a Bosnian prisoner of war at point blank range with an AK-47, killing him, and of shooting another prisoner in the leg and forcing that man to crawl up a hill while he continued shooting at him.

The alleged crimes happened on a Bosnian battlefield in March of 1995. Mujagic is a legal, permanent resident of the United States, living in Utica since 1997.

Mujagic is due back in federal court for an extradition hearing sometime in late January or early February.

The judge assigned the federal public defender to represent him.

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