BOSTON (AP) – A construction worker living in a Boston suburb was an executioner in a Bosnian Serb military unit that took part in the killing of thousands of Muslims in the former Yugoslavia in 1995, prosecutors allege.

Marko Boskic, 40, was charged with two counts of immigration document fraud, said U.S. Attorney Michael Sullivan in a statement Thursday. Boskic was arrested Wednesday at his home in Peabody, 20 miles north of Boston.

In a statement supporting the criminal complaint, a federal investigator alleged that Boskic was a member of the 10th Sabotage Detachment, which took part in the mass killings in the Bosnian town of Srebrenica.

About 7,500 Muslim men and boys were slain over nine days in July 1995 when Serb forces broke through U.N. defense posts around the area. It was the worst slaughter of civilians in Europe since World War II.

Sullivan said Boskic lied when he applied for refugee and permanent resident alien status in the United States by not completely revealing his service in the Bosnian military. He came to this country in 2000.

Boskic was allegedly carrying out the orders of superiors when he and seven other soldiers gunned down 1,200 men at a farm in Pilica, a village outside Srebrenica, Sullivan’s office said.

Boskic’s name surfaced last year during the war crimes trial of former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic in The Hague, Netherlands.

Drazen Erdemovic, who earlier had pleaded guilty to murder for his role in the killings, testified that he and Boskic lined up 10 men at a time and shot them down.

The war crimes tribunal has not announced any indictment of Boskic and tribunal officials said they could not immediately comment on his detention in the United States.

Boskic appeared Thursday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Lawrence P. Cohen and agreed to remain in federal custody until trial.

If convicted, Boskic faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine on each charge, prosecutors said. He also would face possible deportation.

AP-ES-08-27-04 0946EDT