Nada Radovan Tomanic, who is suspected of beating Serbian civilians, sexually abusing and humiliating them, and participating in the beating of a prisoner who later died while she was a member of the “Zulfikar” special unit in 1993 on Mount Igman near Sarajevo, faces nine years in prison and deportation from the USA. According to the indictment, she concealed her participation in war conflicts to obtain American citizenship.
The sentencing is scheduled for April 8 before a federal court in the USA.
Kurir had exclusive insight into the case documents of “United States of America v. Nada Radovan Tomanic.”
– She became a naturalized US citizen by lying to American immigration authorities about her heinous crimes during the war in BiH in 1993. She brutally and repeatedly beat helpless civilians detained in the camp, which led to the death of one of them. She also forced the detainees into mutual sexual abuse – states the US sentencing memorandum, filed on April 1 on April 1 before the District Court in Connecticut.
SERIOUS ACCUSATIONS: Nada Radoman Tomanic faces 9 years in prison and deportation from the USA
The US government submitted a request to the court to issue an order revoking, canceling, and declaring null and void the decision to admit the defendant Nada Radovan Tomanic to American citizenship.
She immigrated to the USA in 1997, while she received American citizenship in 2012.
Although she lived under the radar for years, according to media reports, she was recognized by a Serb employed as an electrician at a prestigious university in Connecticut.
Following that, in 2023, proceedings were initiated before an American court because, during the application for naturalization, she allegedly gave false testimony that she had not persecuted anyone because of religion, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion, and that she had not committed a criminal offense for which she had not been arrested.
The chilling testimonies of Serbs, former detainees of camps in the vicinity of Sarajevo, tell the truth.
TORTURE SITE FOR SERBS: Hotel “Mraziste” on Igman Photo: Private archive
American federal prosecutors state that she was a member of the special purpose unit “Zulfikar,” directly subordinate to the headquarters of the Supreme Command of the so-called Army of BiH, and that victims testified before various investigative bodies that she “participated in beating prisoners with boots, fists, and other objects” on Mount Igman.
– According to those statements and documents obtained from Bosnia, Tomanic abused unarmed civilians – prisoners, through physical beatings, sexual abuse, threats, humiliating insults, and intimidation. Specifically, she guarded prisoners and participated in the abuse, beating them with fists, boots, a wooden beam, batons, and a rifle, and forced them to perform oral sex on each other. She also forced them to touch her breasts and asked them if they wanted to have sexual intercourse with her – regardless of their answer, she beat them – states the indictment to which Kurir had exclusive insight.
A particularly moving testimony cited is the statement of former camp inmate D. V., who stated before the Hague Tribunal that Tomanic, along with six other soldiers, participated in the brutal beating of prisoner Jadranko Glavas, which led to his death. As he stated, rifle butts, hands, feet, and rods were used in the beating.
VICTIM: The grave of Jadranko Glavas, who died after a brutal beating in the camp
– I saw with my own eyes how she slapped him, kicked him in the head, groin, and chest, and insulted his Chetnik mother, while Glavas lay on the floor because he could not stand up due to his injuries.
Several Serbs in Muslim camps also stated that Tomanic forced them into the sexual abuse of other prisoners.
Back in the nineties, B. M. described Tomanic before the Hague Tribunal as one of the four “main organizers” of sexual abuse, while D. V. stated in a 2008 declaration:
– She and others forced us, Orthodox Serbs, to pray like Muslims, drink urine, lick each other’s anuses, and put genitals in each other’s mouths.
What the US government is seeking
-A sentence of 108 months, i.e., nine years in prison
-Revocation of citizenship – denaturalization
-Deportation
In November 2025, Tomanic pleaded guilty to obtaining citizenship contrary to the law. She also confirmed that she was part of the “Zulfikar” unit, but her defense pointed out that she was an ordinary soldier, without a significant role, and that she had nothing to do with Glavas’s murder.
She also admitted to the physical mistreatment of prisoners, stating that she regrets it today.
NOTORIOUS: The “Zulfikar” unit committed crimes against civilians and prisoners
– From February to August 1993, she served on Mount Igman as part of “Zulfikar,” guarding prisoners and participating in actions that, in the fog of war, included mistreatment and beatings. This is behavior she deeply regrets, but she places it in the context of a terrible environment in which all sides committed atrocities, and her officers approved and even ordered such types of behavior – states the defense, whose requests Kurir also had insight into.
She was released on bail of $50,000 and is currently in New Britain, Connecticut, where she is awaiting sentencing.
Nosovic: 167 ways in which they tortured people were listed
The President of the Association of Camp Inmates of Republika Srpska, Andjelko Nosovic, says that Serbian civilians, not soldiers, were detained in the Silos camp in Tarcin, from where Serbs were taken to Igman. In this camp, which existed from 1992 to 1996, they suffered the most terrible torture, but almost no one was held accountable. He does not expect the satisfaction of justice, even regarding Tomanic, to happen in BiH. Eventually in the USA.
CRIMINAL PAST: Nada Radoman Tomanic
– Silos is one of 127 camps formed during the war on the territory of Sarajevo. There were a total of 536 in BiH. More than 650 civilians passed through Silos. Eleven women were detained in the camp and were systematically raped. Among them was a woman six months pregnant. The youngest prisoner was 13 years old, and the oldest was 87. Were they a threat?! – asks Nosovic:
– 167 ways in which they tortured people were listed – starvation, beatings, passing electricity through telephone cables… As many as 24 people were killed there, and nearly 100 died immediately after the camp. For all those crimes, the court in BiH prosecuted six or seven people, who were sentenced to a total of 42 years in prison. I do not expect justice even if Tomanic is deported here.
Chronology
-1993– Was a member of the “Zulfikar” special unit
-1997– Received refugee status in the USA
-2000– Received a green card (permanent residence permit)
-2012– Received US citizenship
-2023– Indictment filed in the USA
-2025– Pleaded guilty to obtaining citizenship contrary to the law and was arrested
-2026– Sentencing scheduled for April 8
The defense requested a suspended sentence or a sentence equal to the time already spent in detention, stating that the legal range for this offense is up to six months in prison, and that the loss of citizenship is already a sufficient sanction.
INSIGNIA IN ARABIC: Coat of arms of the “Zulfikar” unit
On the other hand, US federal prosecutors requested a sentence of nine years, emphasizing that “war criminals and torturers must not be allowed to abuse the US immigration system.”
Otherwise, in 2023, after the initiation of the proceedings, the Prosecutor’s Office of BiH thanked the institutions in the USA “for their help in the fight against impunity for inhumane treatment during the war in BiH” and stated that they would provide assistance regarding the prosecution of the suspect.
Nada Tomanic was born in 1972 in Novi Sad. Her defense, trying to explain her actions, stated that her mother abandoned her immediately after birth and that later, when she returned, she physically and mentally abused her, and that she joined the BiH army to escape from her.
Several deaths recorded
In the Republic Center for Research on War, War Crimes, and Search for Missing Persons from Republika Srpska, they tell Kurir that Nada Tomanic is charged in a report on a committed criminal offense filed by the Public Service Center (CJB) East Sarajevo in 2009 to the Prosecutor’s Office of BiH.
– In the period from February to July 1993, at least 25 persons of Serbian nationality, who were unlawfully detained in the Silos and Krupa camps in the area of Hadzici municipality, were taken to Mount Igman for forced labor for the needs of the so-called Army of BiH. This work involved the forced digging of trenches and bunkers on the front lines, whereby their lives were exposed to danger, without the possibility of protection or the exercise of rights belonging to them in accordance with international conventions – they say at the Center, explaining that supervision over the prisoners during their stay on Igman was carried out by the “Zulfikar” unit, while the prisoners during that time were housed in the basements of the “Mraziste” and “Igman” hotels.
– Besides exposure to daily dangers on the front line, the prisoners were, according to their testimonies, exposed almost daily to the cruelest torture, psychological and sexual abuse, the deliberate infliction of severe physical and mental pain and suffering, without adequate nutrition and without the possibility of satisfying basic hygienic needs. During this period, several deaths were recorded; thus, one of the camp inmates died after stepping on a mine, one was allegedly taken from his cell for an exchange, since when all trace of him has been lost, while one person died due to horrific torture.
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Source: Kurir Photo: Privatna arhiva