FLORIDA
A federal judge sentenced a Jacksonville, Florida man to 18 months in prison for unlawfully obtaining a U.S. citizenship. He failed to disclose his membership in the Bosnian Army, officials announced Monday.
Slobo Maric also didn’t disclose crimes that he committed in Bosnia and Herzegovina during the Bosnian Conflict in the 1990s, according to federal officials.
U.S. District Judge Marcia Morales Howard of Florida also ordered Maric’s U.S. citizenship revoked.
On July 18, 2016, Maric, 56, pleaded guilty to one count of unlawful procurement of naturalization, according to authorities.
According to the plea agreement, in 1993, Maric served as a shift leader, the second in command to the warden, of a detention facility in Bosnia that housed captured, Bosnian-Croat soldiers.
Many of the guards in the facility routinely subjected detainees to serious physical abuse and humiliation.
According to the plea agreement, Maric selected detainees for other guards to abuse; directly participated in abusing several prisoners, and sent prisoners on dangerous and deadly work details on the front line of the conflict.
The Bosnian government charged Maric for his criminal conduct and after Maric immigrated to the United States, Bosnia indicted and convicted Maric in absentia for war crimes against prisoners.
According to the plea agreement, Maric knew about the Bosnian court proceedings, yet he failed to disclose the proceedings and lied about his conduct on his application for U.S. citizenship.
Maric became a naturalized U.S. citizen on Oct. 31, 2002.