SIOUX FALLS - State prosecutors have at least temporarily dropped charges against a Bosnian man who's fighting extradition to his homeland for a 1995 slaying.

A court in the European country found Samir Avdic guilty in absentia of shooting and killing a man while they hid in a cave to escape violence in the country.

Avdic, 40, is in the United States on a temporary visa and had been living in Sioux Falls with his family and working at the John Morrell & Co. meatpacking plant.

Sioux Falls police arrested him March 9 after he was accused of using his vehicle to ram into another vehicle carrying his stepdaughter's boyfriend.

A Minnehaha County grand jury indicted Avdic on two counts of aggravated assault, three counts of simple assault and reckless driving.

Those charges have since been withdrawn because the federal government has Avdic in custody, which is cutting into the 180 days the state is given to try him on the charges, said Deputy State's Attorney Dustin DeBoer.

"Their writs took precedence over what we have," he said. "So in order to preserve our right to prosecute, I dismissed the case." DeBoer said he would refile charges if Avdic is released.

Avdic is being held by U.S. authorities under a separate complaint accusing him of being a fugitive from a foreign country.

At a court appearance in March on that charge, U.S. Magistrate John Simko ordered Avdic held in jail until a June 5 hearing that will include testimony about the crime and whether the United States should extradite him to Bosnia.

In August 1995, Avdic and two other men were hiding in a cave while the nearby town of Srebrenica was under siege by Serbian forces, according to the federal complaint.

The three men argued and Avdic fatally shot one of the other men in the back and, with the third man's help, threw the body down a ravine, the document states.

"Avdic later confessed to the crime," according to the complaint.

A Bosnian court issued a warrant for Avdic's arrest in November 1998 and he was convicted a month later.

Court documents do not indicate when Avdic came to the United States.

He was initially sentenced to 12 years in prison but an appeals court later reduced it to six years after re-evaluating mitigating factors, the complaint states.

Avdic's lawyer told the magistrate in March that the case involves complicated facts and legal issues, some of them related to identity.

Court proceedings in Bosnia-Herzegovina during the time Avdic was convicted have been criticized by some as staged trials that sent innocent people to prison without enough evidence.