SWAMPSCOTT — Town resident Kemal Mrndzic, 50, was arrested and charged Wednesday morning with making false claims of persecution to become a refugee in the United States and an American citizen.
Mrndzic was allegedly a guard supervisor at the Celebici camp, a notorious prison camp in Bosnia and Herzegovina during the Bosnian War in the 1990s.
“The United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) found that guards at the Celebici prison camp had committed numerous murders, rapes, and had engaged in torture and other forms of persecution of Serb prisoners held at the camp,” according to a press release from the office of U.S. Attorney Rachel Rollins.
Prosecutors allege that in his refugee application and interview, Mrndzic falsely claimed he fled his home after he was captured, interrogated, and abused by Serb forces, and could not return home out of fear of future persecution. He was admitted to the U.S. as a refugee in 1999 and eventually became a naturalized American citizen in 2009.
Oleg Lunev lives down the hall from Mrndzic at the west building of Summit Estates on Paradise Road. Lunev stepped outside at approximately 6 a.m. Wednesday morning to walk his dog, Magic, and enjoy his morning cigarette. He said when he got outside, he saw dozens of armored trucks and other law-enforcement vehicles from the Department of Homeland Security and Swampscott Police Department surrounding the building.
“They moved all the cars outside of his windows and on the bullhorn, they said ‘Come out with your hands up!'” Lunev said.
Lunev described Mrndzic as a polite, quiet neighbor. He said he never heard him say anything more than a brief “Hello” or “How are you?” in the hallway. He said Summit Estates is a close-knit community where residents regularly talk to and about one another, yet none of his neighbors seemed to know anything about Mrndzic.
“Nobody knew anything about this guy,” Mrndzic said. “He kept to himself and seemed like a very nice guy.”
Lunev said after Mrndzic’s arrest, one of his neighbors asked him to accompany her to the laundry room for safety.
Mrndzic was 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,” according to the release. He appeared in federal court in Boston before Chief Magistrate Judge Mary Page Kelley and was released on a $30,000 cash bond Wednesday afternoon.
The press release said that according to court documents, ICTY investigators interviewed Mrndzic after the war ended in 1995. They allegedly accused him of involvement in the camp’s abuses. Mrndzic then allegedly fled Bosnia and Herzegovina to neighboring Croatia, before applying as a refugee to the United States with a falsified narrative.
The ICTY convicted three Celebici guards after a trial in The Hague, at which survivors of the camp testified about its “harrowing conditions,” the release said. The guards were convicted of crimes including willful killing and murder, and torture and cruel treatment under the Geneva Convention.
“According to the complaint, numerous survivors have since identified Mrndzic as being involved in the beatings and other abuses committed there,” the release said.
Swampscott Police Detective Ted Delano assisted in the federal arrest Wednesday morning. He said in his 32-year law enforcement career, he had never seen an investigation similar to this one.
“We were glad to assist federal partners. Some of the information was very concerning, but people are safe. There’s no need or cause for alarm,” Delano said.
