A Connecticut woman who became a naturalized U.S. citizen was sentenced last week to 30 months in prison for naturalization fraud after lying about her past criminal conduct, officials stated.
According to court documents and statements made in court, Nada Radovan Tomanić, 53, of West Virginia, served in the 1990s with the Zulfikar Special Unit of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina during the region’s armed conflict.
Prosecutors stated that Tomanić and other members of the unit participated in the severe physical and psychological abuse of Bosnian Serb civilian prisoners, including acts of torture and other inhumane treatment that constituted war crimes.
Authorities stated that when Tomanić applied for U.S. naturalization in 2012, she falsely denied serving in a detention facility or in any role involving the detention of others. She also denied committing a crime for which she had not been arrested, specifically inflicting serious bodily harm under the criminal law of the former Socialist Republic of Yugoslavia.
Officials stated Tomanić repeated those false statements during an in-person interview with a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services officer, where she was under oath and legally required to answer truthfully.