[JURIST] Former Bosnian prison guard Slobo Maric was stripped [press release] of his US citizenship and sentenced to 18 months in prison on Monday after failing to disclose his membership in the Bosnian Army and war crimes he committed during the Bosnia-Herzegovina Conflict [BBC backgrounder], according to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement [official profile]. Maric became a US citizen in 2002, after serving in a detention facility in Bosnia where he subjected detainees to physical abuse and psychological damage. According to the press release, “[t]he Bosnian government charged Maric for his criminal conduct and, after Maric immigrated to the United States, Bosnia indicted and convicted Maric in absentia for war crimes against prisoners. According to the plea agreement, Maric knew about the Bosnian court proceedings, yet he failed to disclose the proceedings and lied about his conduct on his application for U.S. citizenship.” Judge James Klindt of the US District Court for the Middle District of Florida [official website] heard the plea [press release] in July sentencing Maric Monday.

Prosecutions continue for those accused of committing war crimes during the Bosnian conflict of the 1990s. Earlier in March the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) began hearing an appeal [JURIST report] by Jadranko Prlic, Prime Minister of the Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia, an unrecognized entity within Bosnia and Herzegovina, and five of his former senior military officials for crimes against humanity. In February the government of Bosnia and Herzegovina formally asked [JURIST report] the International Court of Justice to review a 2007 ruling clearing Serbia of genocide during their 1990 civil war. The same month the trial [JURIST report] of eight former Bosnian Serb police officers charged with participating in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre began before the Higher Court in Belgrade.