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West Virginia resident Nada Radovan Tomanic, age 51, who once lived in Hartford, was arrested on Thursday, Nov. 29 on charges related to her alleged lying to obtain US citizenship, the US Attorney's Office for the District of Connecticut announced.
According to officials, Tomanic served with the Zulfikar Special Unit of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina during the war in the 1990s. During this time, she allegedly participated in the mental and physical abuse of Bosnian Serb prisoners that was based on ethnicity, religion, and membership in a particular social group.
Some of this abuse included beating prisoners with her fists, boots, a two-by-four piece of wood, a baton, and a rifle. She also subjected the prisoners to "humiliating and degrading verbal abuse and insults," according to court documents.
Tomanic eventually entered the US as a refugee in 1997 and was granted permanent residence in 2000. More than a decade later, in 2012, she applied for US citizenship. During this process, she falsely represented that she had not persecuted anyone because of their religion, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion, and also said that she had never committed a crime for which she was arrested.
Tomanic is now charged with two counts of unlawful procurement of naturalization and faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison for each count. If convicted, she would also lose her US citizenship, officials said.
"Nada Tomanic has enjoyed the privileges of U.S. citizenship for more than 10 years – privileges she allegedly obtained by lying to cover up human rights abuses she committed in Bosnia and Herzegovina," said Acting Assistant Attorney General Nicole Argentieri.
Argentieri continued, "The Justice Department will vigorously enforce our nation’s immigration laws to ensure that the United States does not serve as a safe haven for persecutors."
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