A former Connecticut woman has pleaded guilty to lying about having committed war crimes in another country to gain citizenship to the United States.
Nada Radovan Tomanic, 53, of West Virginia and formerly of Hartford took a plea deal on Monday in federal court in Bridgeport, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Connecticut.
Tomanic, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Bosnia and Herzegovina, pleaded guilty to one count of procuring citizenship contrary to law, federal officials said. She is scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 3 and faces a maximum of 10 years in prison.
Authorities said Tomanic served with the Zulfikar Special Unit of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the 1990s, during an armed conflict in the region. Along with other Zulfikar Special Unit soldiers, Tomanic participated in the “physical and psychological abuse” of Bosnian Serb civilian prisoners, federal officials said.
When applying for naturalization in 2012, Tomanic denied having served in a detention facility or in any other situation involving the detention of others, officials said.
“She also falsely denied having committed a crime for which she had not been arrested — specifically, the crime of inflicting serious bodily harm under the Criminal Law of the Socialist Republic of Yugoslavia,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office wrote in a statement.
“The defendant obtained the privileges of U.S. citizenship through lies and deceit, concealing the violent crimes she committed in Bosnia and Herzegovina,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Matthew R. Galeotti of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “The Department is fully committed to holding accountable those who exploit our immigration system and pose a threat to public safety.”
During an interview with a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services officer, Tomanic, while under oath, again lied about her service in a detention facility and her past criminal conduct, officials said.
“Covering up past human rights abuses to attain U.S. citizenship is an egregious offense, and I thank our law enforcement partners both here in the U.S. and in Bosnia and Herzegovina for investigating this matter to ensure that justice is done,” said U.S. Attorney David X. Sullivan for the District of Connecticut.
“Individuals who lie on their naturalization documents undermine the process for all who justly apply to be a part of our great nation,” said Special Agent in Charge P.J. O’Brien of the FBI. “Tomanic’s admissions of fraud are detestable because of her history of targeting people based on their ethnicity and religion. The FBI, along with our partners at the Department of Homeland Security’s Human Rights Violators and War Crimes Center, and the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Office of Fraud Detection and National Security will continue to investigate crimes of this nature to ensure the sanctity of the immigration process for all who righteously apply for U.S. Citizenship.”