US deports Army of Republika Srpska soldier: We are not a haven for criminals

(Patria) - The US Department of Justice has requested the denaturalization of war criminals who beat, tortured, and sexually abused civilians in the war in Bosnia in 1992.

The United States yesterday filed a denaturalization complaint in the Western District of Virginia against Slobodan Letić, a native of Croatia, who, according to the Justice Department's lawsuit, concealed and misrepresented his involvement in the beating, torture, and sexual abuse of civilians in the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1992, when he was an officer in the Bosnian Serb army.

- Letić took two female detainees out of the camp before taking them to an apartment where he beat and raped them. After the women were released from the camp, Letić later found one of them walking the streets, took her to an abandoned house, and forcibly raped her. Letić also broke into the homes of other civilians in Bosnia and subjected them to severe beatings, torture, and mock executions, according to the State Department.

Letic concealed his involvement in war crimes and acts of persecution throughout his immigration and naturalization process after entering the United States, claiming to be a refugee. Additionally, the civil complaint states that Letić concealed his Bosnian criminal convictions for acts related to corruption he committed as a police officer after the war. Letić was naturalized as a US citizen on September 22, 2006.

"The United States is not a safe haven for war criminals and human rights violators," said Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate of the Justice Department's Civil Division. "Letic entered our country posing as a victim of persecution, when in fact he committed horrific acts as a persecutor of others. He exploited our generous refugee reception system and should not have been granted US citizenship. This action seeks to correct that injustice, and we are committed to maintaining the integrity of the naturalization process against fraud and misrepresentation."

Under the Immigration and Nationality Act, a naturalized US citizen can have their citizenship revoked and their certificate of naturalization canceled if naturalization was obtained unlawfully or by concealing a material fact or by willful misrepresentation.

This case was investigated by the Civil Division's Office of Immigration Litigation, with assistance from the FBI, Homeland Security Investigations Historian William Tomljanovich, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement Attaché John Christofor, and the government of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The case is being handled by trial attorney Christopher Lyerla and reviewed by Max Weintraub of the Office of Immigration Litigation, General Litigation and Appeals, Affirmative Litigation Unit.