Swampscott Man Hid Past As Violent Guard At Notorious Bosnian Prison Camp: Feds

A 50-year-old Swampscott man who fled to the United States as a refugee to become a citizen may be a violent former Bosnian prison guard that oversaw the torture, rape, and abuse of hundreds of Serbian prisoners, authorities said.

Kemal Mrndzic is accused of lying and pretending to be a refugee to get access to the United States, where he would later become a naturalized citizen in 2009, officials said.
Photo Credit: *Canva/Anele77*

Josh Lanier

05/18/2023 5:42 p.m.

Kemal Mrndzic was charged with falsifying, concealing, and covering up a material fact from the US government by trick, scheme, or device, using a fraudulently obtained US passport and possessing and using a fraudulently obtained naturalization certificate and fraudulently obtained Social Security card, the US Attorney for Massachusett said. He was released after posting a $30,000 bond.

Investigators say Mrndzic was a guard at the Celebici prison camp in Bosnia and Herzegovina during the sectarian war of the 1990s. United Nations investigations found guards at that prison camp committed murders, rapes, and tortured Serbian prisons being held there. Three of Mrndzic's fellow guards were convicted by the International Criminal Tribunal at the Hague.

Several survivors have since identified Mrndzic as one of the guards at the prison camp.

After the war, international investigators accused Mrndzic of being a prison guard at Celebici, but he fled to neighboring Croatia before applying as a refugee to the United States. Mrndzic told the interviewers he'd been forced from his home after he was captured, interrogated, and tortured by Serbian forces, the prosecutor said. This was all a lie, according to officials.

He said he feared returning home and was granted entry into the US in 1999 and became a naturalized citizen in 2009, officials said.

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