A former Bosnian Serb soldier, linked a brutal jail camp throughout the conflict following the breakup of Yugoslavia, was discovered responsible by a Tucson jury final week on three counts of immigration fraud in an effort to cover his wartime previous, together with mendacity on an software for everlasting residency and once more when he tried to realize U.S. citizenship.
Sinisa Djurdjic, 50, is a former member of the Bosnian Serb Military, in keeping with courtroom paperwork, and was linked to the “Kon-Tiki” jail— a theme lodge reworked right into a detention camp throughout the 1992 conflict in Bosnia-Herzegovina. The jail the place he served as a guard grew to become a infamous “rape camp” the place lots of of men and women had been sexually assaulted, tortured and murdered. The positioning was later the topic of war-crimes investigations.
From Could to December 1992, Djurdjic was a uniformed guard for the Serbian forces, and he was accused of torturing and persecuting Muslim prisoners, together with civilians who lived within the neighboring village.
Djurdjic got here to the USA in 2000 as a refugee, and later utilized for, and acquired a everlasting residency card. Nevertheless, in his immigration functions, he lied about his navy and police service, in keeping with a grand jury indictment. Based on courtroom paperwork, Djurdjic beat some prisoners to “unconsciousness or close to
unconsciousness” and he was accountable “for escorting,
interrogating and/or beating newly arrived prisoners.”
Djurdjic was convicted of manslaughter in Could 2003 after he killed a
man whereas driving drunk, and he served 5 years in jail, in accordance
to courtroom information. After his launch, Djurdjic lived in Tucson and labored for 2 Dodge dealerships, together with
Tucson Dodge and Larry H. Miller Dodge Ram Fiat.
In June 2015, Djurdjic utilized for U.S. citizenship, and he denied his
connection to the Bosnian Serb Military. As a part of the appliance, an immigrant is requested if they’ve badly damage or tried to harm an individual on objective, if they’ve participated in a conflict, or served as a volunteer or soldier for a jail or jail, together with a jail camp or detention facility. As a part of the indictment, Djurdjic was accused of mendacity on two federal types, together with the shape I-485 for everlasting residency and his N-400 for citizenship.
Djurdjic “utilized for, acquired, and possessed and used his everlasting resident card knowingly he had fraudulently procured his everlasting resident card by omitting his service within the uniformed Bosnian Serb authorities,” a grand jury present in October 2017. He additionally was “not entitled to naturalization and citizenship,” and engaged in “willful misrepresentation.”
In 1991, the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia started to interrupt
aside. Inside a yr, as armed clashes erupted within the northern and
western components of the nation, Bosnian and Herzegovina held a referendum
to grow to be an impartial nation. Inside weeks, the 2 sides cut up alongside ethnic and spiritual fault traces broke out into open preventing as Bosnian Serb navy forces—who
needed to stick with Serbia and Montenegro—fought the Bosnian authorities.
For months, the 2 sides fought intensely from village to village,
together with within the space round Vogosca.
The brutality of the
conflict was later investigated by the United Nations’ Worldwide Felony
Tribunal for the previous Yugoslavia, or UN-ICTY. In 2008, authorities
arrested Radovan Karadžić, the previous chief of the Bosnian Serbs,
charging him with genocide, together with the deaths of 1000’s of
Bosniaks, or Bosnian Muslims. This included the cruel siege of Sarajevo
and the Srebrenica bloodbath, when Bosnian Serb troops killed as many as
8,000 males and boys in what had been declared a “protected space” by the UN in
1995.
About six miles from Sarajevo, the Kon-Tiki lodge close to Vogosca was reworked into a jail for Croatian and Bosnian civilians throughout the conflict, and have become a “rape camp.” The lodge, and a infamous
constructing generally known as the “bunker” had been just lately made right into a memorial after
native authorities purchased the lodge from survivors with plans to open a
museum to memorialize the “struggling of the residents of
Bosnia-Herzegovina,” Radio Free Europe reported.
After his citizenship software, investigators with Homeland Safety Investigations, part of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, started reviewing Djurdjic’s administrative file or A-File. They discovered his birthday and the identify of his father “Radivoje” matched to the personnel file of a former Bosnia and Herzegovinan soldier and paramilitary police officer.
HSI has performed these investigations for many years, arresting greater than 480 individuals during the last 20 years for human rights-related violations, the company stated. HSI particular brokers have additionally blocked 350 individuals from coming to
the U.S. after they had been accused of violating human rights, and is
looking for practically 80,000 different individuals linked to human rights abuses.
In 2008, HSI fashioned the Human Rights Violators and Warfare Crimes Heart to establish, prosecute, and deport individuals linked to human rights violations or conflict crimes within the U.S. In 2018, the Justice Division eliminated a former Nazi labor camp guard from the U.S. after an HSI investigation—certainly one of at the very least 68 individuals deported for his or her position in World Warfare II Germany.
“When an individual makes an attempt to grow to be a U.S. citizen beneath false
pretenses, it jeopardizes our naturalization course of —and it’s
particularly damaging to those that faithfully comply with the judicial system,”
stated Scott Brown, particular agent in cost for HSI Arizona. “Merely put,
those that knowingly and willfully misrepresent themselves, particularly
those that are thought-about nationwide safety threats, conflict criminals and
human rights violators, to attempt to receive U.S. citizenship standing, will
be held accountable for his or her deceitful actions. This defendant was
discovered responsible as a result of unwavering dedication by those that investigated
and are prosecuting this case.”
Throughout Djurdjic’s trial, administered by U.S. District Decide Jennifer G. Zipps, prosecutors offered lots of of pages of proof, and had practically a dozen witnesses testify in opposition to Djurdjic: together with 5 individuals from Bosnia; two historians, together with Dorothea Hanson, a former prison analyst and analysis officer with the United Nations Worldwide Felony Tribunal for the previous Yugoslavia; two officers from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Companies; in addition to two HSI particular brokers.
Eyewitnesses
stated Djurdjic beat, incited, or assisted others to beat or in any other case
torture Muslims within the jail, in keeping with courtroom paperwork. In a single
incident, Djurdjic confirmed a prisoner
a number of knives and instructed him to select which he “needed to be butchered
with.” When the prisoner picked a knife, Djurdjic stated he was selecting one other “to trigger extra ache and injury,” in keeping with courtroom information.
Djurdjic testified in his personal protection over two days, nevertheless, throughout cross-examination, he admitted he was within the Bosnian Serb Military throughout the battle, telling jurors he went to the police academy and was a part of a police unit later linked to the genocide in Srebrenica. He additionally instructed jurors he lied about his navy service as a result of he knew it might block him from coming to the U.S.. Nevertheless, he included his navy and police service on his resume when utilized for a job promoting used automobiles in 2007.
After an eight-day trial, the jury deliberated for simply two hours on Could 18 earlier than they discovered Djurdjic responsible of mendacity about his navy and police service in Bosnia and his position as a jail guard.
Djurdjic might face 5 years in jail, and shall be sentenced by Decide Zipps on Aug. 8. After his jail time period, Djurdjic shall be deported.