Immigrant held in mass killings

BOSTON (AP) -- A construction worker living near Boston was in federal custody Friday, accused in the mass slaughter of Muslims as a member of a Bosnian Serb military unit in the former Yugoslavia.
Marko Boskic, a 40-year-old Bosnian national, was identified by federal prosecutors as an executioner in the unit that killed some 1,200 Muslim men and boys at a farm outside Srebenica in 1995.
Boskic is charged with lying on applications for refugee and permanent resident alien status in the United States by not revealing his complete military history. He faces deportation back to Bosnia-Herzegovina, where he could be tried as a war criminal.
Boskic was arrested late Wednesday at his condominium in suburban Peabody, where prosecutors said he had been living the past four years. During a court appearance Thursday, Boskic said through an interpreter that he worked on and off for a construction company.
Peabody police said Boskic had been arrested at least five times, usually following domestic disputes.
A neighbor, Arthur Liaperdos, said he awoke to the sounds of a fight several months ago and heard a woman's screams. The woman came out into the hallway, Liaperdos said, and Boskic pulled her back inside. The police came shortly thereafter.
"He had no respect for anybody, the neighbors -- fighting in the middle of the night like that," Liaperdos said.
But people who worked with Boskic said they were surprised to hear the allegations about his past.
"He never lost his temper; he's a great guy," said Vincenzo Penta, general manager of a masonry contractor where Boskic worked. "It's weird. I can't imagine they have the right guy."
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