A grandad who appeared unassuming to Morrisons shoppers before he was pictured with his groceries is reportedly a suspected Serbian war criminal battling extradition from Britain.
Boro Marusic, 64, faces trial for four wartime offences in Croatia – where he could be extradited to answer for the crimes he allegedly carried out as a soldier during the tyranny of Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic.
Croat prosecutors claim he was a paramilitary fighter in the former Yugoslav Army (JNA) who was involved in a violent abduction and an operation to forcibly evict non-Serbs from their villages.
More than 30 years after the crimes are said to have taken place, when the claims were put to him, he told The Mirror: ‘I deny all of the allegations. I was in the army because it was war. Everyone was, they had to be.’
After moving to Britain in 1999, Marusic currently lives on a quiet street in Bedford, and was recently seen out shopping and chatting with locals in workwear dungarees and a baseball cap.
Boro Marusic currently lives on a quiet street in Bedford, and was recently seen out shopping
Marusic has reportedly been working as a car bodywork spray painter since arriving in the UK – and faces up to 20 years in jail if he is sent back to Croatia.
He was arrested by the National Crime Agency in January after a judge in Croatia issued a warrant for his arrest in November 2022.
Prosecutors say he was involved in the violent kidnapping of a man in the village of Karanac in August 1991.
The victim reportedly claims that Marusic was among a group of soldiers who bundled him into the back of a car and then attacked him, using the butts of their rifles and threatening to kill him.
The former soldier is also accused of being part of another operation which saw non-Serbs threatened with guns to leave their homes.
The Serb-dominated JNA, controlled by the Serbia’s President Milosevic, was responsible for significant bloodshed in Croatia after the country declared independence in 1991.
Milosevic was the first sitting head of state to be charged with war crimes for his alleged role in the violence, which saw thousands killed.
Marusic is planning to fight his extradition to Croatia at a hearing at London’s Westminster Magistrates Court in July.
He says the judicial process in the country is ‘not fair’ and that he has an alibi for the day he was allegedly involved in the brutal kidnapping, claiming he was in his village painting a tractor.
Marusic admits he was part of the Yugoslav army, but denies any wrongdoing. File image shows Yugoslav army soldiers pictured in 1999
He slammed the evidence against him, highlighting the testimony of four people naming him which the NCA documents are reported to show.
He claimed: ‘Two of them are dead and one is in prison. I knew them, they were my friends. I don’t know why they are saying this now.
‘After 32 years, I don’t know. There’s a high possibility they didn’t even write these things themselves. People get forced to lie and say certain things.’
He added that he had previously travelled back to Croatia every year and that he does not understand ‘why this is happening now.’
Marusic is currently on £10,000 bail under the condition he wears an electronic tag and remains at home at night, while police are witholding his Croat passport.
He is reported to have two grandchildren and says he is a full-time carer for his wife.