DOJ Discovers 'Refugee' Was Actually a Genocidal Maniac...After 15 YEARS in U.S.

Brittany M. Hughes | August 31, 2016
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A former refugee who lied about "fearing persecution" to gain admission to the United States just got his citizenship revoked and landed more than four years in prison when it turned out he was actually a genocidal maniac who did quite a bit of persecuting, himself.

Mladen Mitrovic, 55, of Loganville, Ga., was sentenced to 57 months in prison for “providing false and fraudulent information on his naturalization application” after having been admitted into the United States as a refugee from Bosnia in 1996. It turns out Mitrovic had lied about being persecuted in the then-war-torn nation to gain admission into the United States, and it worked. In fact, President Obama’s Justice Department stated the man had been living comfortably in the United States for about 15 years before anyone found out about his history of "ethnic cleansing."

From the DOJ:

According to evidence presented at trial, in 1996, Mitrovic was permitted to immigrate to the United States based on his statements in his refugee application that he feared persecution if he remained in Bosnia.  In 2002, he naturalized as an American citizen.  The evidence presented at trial also demonstrated that on his naturalization application, Mitrovic stated, among other things, that he had never persecuted anyone because of their race, religion or membership in a social group; he had never committed a criminal offense for which he had not been arrested; and he had never provided any false or misleading information to obtain an immigration benefit, such as refugee status.

In reality, as the trial evidence established, during the Bosnian War, Mitrovic had been a guard in one of the prison camps that the Bosnian Serb Army (VRS) opened in May 1992 to “ethnically cleanse” northwest Bosnia of non-Serb minorities.  At trial, one victim testified that Mitrovic had used a sharp military knife to carve a Christian cross into his chest, saying from that moment on, he “was going to be a Serb.”  Others testified that Mitrovic and other soldiers beat non-Serb prisoners into unconsciousness or threatened to kill them with automatic rifles. 

Mitrovic was indicted in 2012 but released on bond. On May 26 of this year, he was convicted of lying on official documents when he applied for naturalization in 2002.

The DOJ tried to save face over the fact that a war criminal had slipped through the cracks of the U.S. refugee process, saying, “Human rights violators who think they can conceal their past to escape accountability in the United States are sorely mistaken," and adding that "[Homeland Security Investigations] is firmly committed to investigating and identifying criminals who seek to exploit our nation's welcoming policy toward legitimate war refugees.” 

However, the department admitted they only found out about Mitrovic’s past because of a tip from a former prisoner in the camp, who had also come to the United States as a refugee and later found out that Mitrovic was living comfortably in Atlanta. Both the informant and another prisoner testified at the recent hearing, explaining how they “would never forget how people looked after Mitrovic and other soldiers had beaten and tortured them.”

The DOJ's announcement of Mitrovic's sentencing comes just two days after the Obama administration stated it had admitted 10,126 Syrian refugees into the United States so far in FY2016.

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