Feds: Swampscott man was a Bosnian war criminal who faked his way into the U.S.

A former Bosnian-Herzegovinian prison camp supervisor, who allegedly oversaw and was involved in numerous murders, rapes, and the torture of prisoners in the 1990s, was arrested and charged on Wednesday in a Boston federal court after lying about being a refugee and claiming U.S. citizenship, according to federal prosecutors.

Kemal Mrndzic, 50, who had been living in Swampscott at the time of his arrest, is now being charged with several fraud charges and faces several years in prison.

Mrndzic had allegedly worked at as a guard supervisor at the Čelebići prison camp in Bosnia and Herzegovina during the Bosnian War, prosecutors say. Multiple survivors said he was involved with the rape, murder, and torture of prisoners the camp was infamous for.

The United Nations’ International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia previously convicted three of Mrndzic’s fellow guards for the abuse and beatings at the camp. And according to the complaint affidavit, “numerous survivors have identified Mrndzic as being involved in the beatings and other abuses committed there.”

After the war, Mrndzic allegedly fled to Croatia and applied as a refugee to the U.S. using a “fabricated story.”

“It is alleged that in his refugee application and interview, he falsely claimed that he fled his home after he was captured, interrogated and abused by Serb forces, and could not return home for fear of future persecution,” the Department of Justice said in a statement. “He was admitted to the U.S. as a refugee in 1999, and ultimately became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 2009.”  

Mrndzic made an initial court appearance in a federal court in Boston Wednesday morning and was released on $30,000 cash bond.

He is being charged with falsifying, concealing, and covering up a material fact from the U.S. government by trick, scheme, or device; using a fraudulently obtained U.S. passport; and possessing and using a fraudulently obtained naturalization certificate and fraudulently obtained Social Security card.

For the use of a fraudulently obtained passport and fraudulently obtained naturalization certificate charges, Mrndzic faces a sentence of up to 10 years in prison for each charge, followed by three years of supervised release and a $250,000 fine.

For the remaining charges, Mrndzic faces a maximum sentence of up to five years in prison, followed by three years of supervised release and a $250,000 fine.

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