A Connecticut woman who obtained U.S. citizenship by lying about her past criminal conduct related to abuses during the Bosnian conflict of the 1990s was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison, the Justice Department said.
Nada Radovan Tomanić, 53, of West Virginia, pleaded guilty Nov. 10, 2025, to one count of procuring citizenship contrary to law. Prosecutors said she served with the Zulfikar Special Unit of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina during the armed conflict in the region and, alongside other unit members, participated in the severe physical and psychological abuse of Bosnian Serb civilian prisoners, including torture and inhuman treatment amounting to a war crime.
When applying for U.S. naturalization in 2012, Tomanić falsely denied having served in a detention facility or in any situation involving the detention of others, according to court documents. 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 deception continued during her naturalization interview with a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services officer. Though placed under oath and legally obligated to answer truthfully, she again lied about her service in a detention facility and her past criminal conduct.
“The defendant tortured and abused prisoners in Bosnia and then lied to U.S. immigration authorities to live in the U.S. and become a citizen,” said Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva for the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “Human rights violators are not welcome in the United States. Thanks to the courage of the victims, and the diligence and dedication of our prosecutors and law enforcement partners, the defendant has been held accountable for exploiting our immigration system and evading responsibility for her crimes.”
U.S. Attorney David X. Sullivan for the District of Connecticut praised the work of law enforcement partners in the United States and Bosnia, adding, “There is no statute of limitations for human decency.”
Special Agent in Charge P.J. O’Brien of the FBI New Haven Field Office said the investigation revealed Tomanić’s “violent history of targeting people based on their ethnicity and religion” and expressed hope that the sentencing would bring some measure of justice to her victims.
The FBI investigated the case, with coordination from the Department of Homeland Security’s Human Rights Violators and War Crimes Center, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ Office of Fraud Detection and National Security, and the FBI’s International Human Rights Unit. Authorities from Bosnia and Herzegovina, including government ministries, Serbian authorities and the United Nations International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals also provided assistance, the Justice Department said.
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