The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has filed a civil complaint to revoke the American citizenship of a man accused of concealing his role as a guard at a notorious prison camp during the Bosnian War.
Kemal Mrndzic obtained U.S. citizenship through fraudulent means, federal prosecutors allege, after hiding his service as a guard at the Čelebići prison camp.
At the camp, the DOJ said that prison guards subjected Bosnian-Serbs to beatings, torture, sexual assault, starvation, and murder.
A federal jury already convicted Mrndzic last October of multiple counts of criminal fraud and misrepresentation related to his path to citizenship. The jury determined that he falsified and misrepresented crucial information when applying for naturalization.
Mrndzic failed to tell immigration officials about the specifics of his military service during the Bosnian War, which was fought from 1992 to 1995. Most critically, he never disclosed that he served as a guard at Čelebící, where he persecuted Bosnian-Serb prisoners. The DOJ argues that his 2024 criminal conviction proves he should never have been allowed to become a U.S. citizen in the first place.
The Office of Immigration Litigation within the DOJ’s Civil Division is handling the civil case against Mrndzic. Federal investigators with Homeland Security Investigations and prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts conducted the investigation.
Letic, originally from Croatia, hid his involvement in attacks on civilians during the Bosnian War in 1992 when he served as an officer in the Bosnian Serb army. He forcibly removed two women from a detention camp, drove them to an apartment, and assaulted them, the department alleged.
After the women were released, Letic found one of them again and raped her further at an abandoned house. Letic also violently attacked other civilians in Bosnia with severe beatings, torture, and simulated executions.
Letic claimed refugee status upon arriving in the United States in 2000. He became a naturalized citizen on Sept. 22, 2006. The DOJ also alleges that Letic concealed criminal convictions from his time working as a police officer in Bosnia after the war.
“The United States is not a safe haven for war criminals and human rights violators,” Shumate said in a statement at the time. “Letic entered our country posing as a victim of persecution when in fact he had committed horrendous acts as a persecutor of others. He took advantage of our generous system for refugee admissions and should not have been granted U.S. citizenship.”
Under federal immigration law, naturalized citizens can lose their citizenship if their naturalization was obtained illegally, through concealment of important facts, or through intentional misrepresentation.
The Civil Division’s Office of Immigration Litigation oversaw the investigation into Letic with support from the FBI, Homeland Security Investigations, and the government of Bosnia.
